NEGLECTED OPPORTUNITY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 187, 29 July 1908, Page 4

NEGLECTED OPPORTUNITY.

FREE EDU'ATIOX SPI'KXED,

U is a strange thing that jiuroiitd so often refuse to give their children a decent primary school' education) even when it is provided for them l'vee. (.'uses by hundreds arc on record of parents I who have starved and stinted themselves I in order to have their lioys and gins education. It is compulsory ill Now Zealand that a child, if ordinarily situated in the matter of health, distance from school, and risk of infection, shall attend school at least eight times out Of the ten half-days each week when the school is open. Having accomplished | this, sonie parents seem to think th.*y have done their duty by their children, and the youngster is ''kept at home" for I the two remaining half-days.

•In this connection the Taranaki Education Uoard has received a communication from the secretary of the Wellington -Board, slating the experience of that Hoard. He says:—"ln the administration of the compulsory attendance clause of the Education Act it has been found that ill this district a verv considerable

and increasing number of parents ar;\ of sot purpose, taking advantage of section 141, which permits the alienee of a child without reason for at least oneiiftli of its whole school time. .Many children, especially of the improvident class, make the hare minimum of attendance required by law, the must flimsy and absurd reasons being assigned for their absence. Thus (1) the continuity of their training is broken, (2) they lose interest in and liking for school, (3) the revenues of the .Board and salaries of teachers are all'ected. All the more | progressive States of America, the Hoard i schools of England, and the schools uf countries ou the Continent leading n»

education, now require! tins constant attendance of the child unless reasonable cause for absence is produced. The first recommendation made-by two commissioners, wlio, several veal's ago, weie appointed by the New South Willes t!o----verninont to investigate educational practice ili tlie leading countries of-llie world, was the abolition, in that Sl.i'e, of the miuimiini attendance elause. - ' As the Education Bill will probably lie remitled to the Education (,'oiiuuitlee of tin 1 House early next week, an ell'ort is being made by the Wellington Education Board to obtain an e\pression of opinion of the various Boards as to Ihe advisableness of bringing the compulsory clause, of the Act into accord with the law in other progressive countries, still, of course, providing for exemption in tlie eases of justiiiable absence. There is much to be said in favor of the move. The. present system, and any other system -that may bo introduced, will be unsatisfactory to parents unless there is some modification of the exemption clauses. Parents complain now that it is necessary to produce a medical certificate to prove that little Jennie or Jimniic was kept at home 011 account of toothache or other childish ailment. This can easily lie remedied, we should think, by a common-sense give-and-take policy on the part of the parents and teachers, and due. care and humanity on the part of the truant inspector, a case occurs to our mind in which the father of a family was injured and ]ai;l aside. During the term of his illness the mother was also removed from the control of the household by the arrival of another little school pupil of (he future. The most natural thing in the world, especially when we consider that this incident occurred in the backblocks, was to keep the eldest girl away from school to assisl in the home. This was done. The truant inspector in the district was with t'lie utmost dillicully dissu.ub'd from his determination to prosecute the parents for neglecting, to send that girl to school and neglecting to send in the regular exemption certificate! Such a nosiiion as this might easily be provided for in any amendment of the education laws. ' .

This irregularity of the is not'by any means confined to the Wellington district. The headmaster of the (Vntral School, in a report to the committee, complains that-whereas the roll number of the school is 573. the average attendance is only 500.8. lie considers areasonable average would be 510, aul states that that number would place f'e school in a higher grade, entitling it to an additional teacher. It is stated that "mimliug baby" and "helping mother" are frequently the excuses for absence. The committee has decided to urge parents to co-operate in the endeavor to raise the average attendance and so gain the considerable advantages of a higher grade school.