The Daily News FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11. IMPROVING OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 221, 11 September 1908, Page 2

The Daily News FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11. IMPROVING OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM.

"0, for ine coming of that glorious time when, prising knowledge as her noblest ucallli aim best pi-uiucuui], tins Imperial realm- shall admit an obligation 0)1 her part to leach. . . . snail bind herself by st.Uuie lo sccuie to all the children whom her soil maintains the rudiments of knowledge, etc.'' So wrote Addison a good number ol years ago, and many other aphorisms and sayings much to the same effect have been added since. in this Dominion, the fact that knowledge constitutes the noblest wealth ol anv people has long been, recognised, and much has been done in order to secure that, no child born in this free land shall be left ''to droop, without the aid of timely culture. uususlaifled," or battle with the world without the use of "educational instruments and tools." To Victoria belongs the-honor oi being Hie lirs'l ot these southern males to introduce the free, secular, ano cuiupulsory system, by which iL was .vmgni to gather the entire children oi the people under one comprehensive si'liene' into tile public school;, but only three or four years elapsed before New Zealand followed in her wake. Almost immediately after the passing of the Act came the years of depression, stagnation, almost ruination, and no money was available to carry on the splendid work as it was originally designated. The education system, more particularly in its bearing upon the status and circumstances of teachers, «as ieit to languish, and when the sunshine of prosperity came again, it has been about the last to receive the benefit of the generative warmth which ampler means afforded.

In Victoria, the system adopted was a centralised and purely departmental one. Beyond the inspection and control of sanitary arrangements school committees have very little power. They have not the scintillation of nil echo of a voice in the selection or appointment of teachers. In New Zealand we not only have school committees but education boards, « complicated system giving rise -sometimes to friction. With the assistance of the committees the boards have the appointment of teachers, and it is in this connection that friction usually maices its appearance. It is a somewhat extraordinary feature of our system that, whilst the Government, on behalf of the people, pay the salaries, tnev have no voice in the appointment of the men whose salaries arc paid. In Victoria, no doubt, it was because the Government recognised that, if tiji!ey had to pay the teachers, the selection and appointment of the teachers must be in their hands that led to the adoption of the centralised departmental system in force there. Our dual system of local government as applied'to education has now been in operation for more than thirty years. It has come to be closely associated willl the people, and no doubt if any proportion were put forward l'ur its siuiplnie.ition by the doing away with either the committees or the boards there would be a howl of indignation throughout

the country. Two years ago a superanmiai ion system was provided for our teachers, whilst their isalai'jcs were improved. By the Education Act Amendment Hill, , now before Parliament, the teachers of the colony will be placed upon a much more satisfactory position so inr as I classification is concerned, whilst again their rates of remuneration, will, especially in the more necessitous eases, be increased. The lighting clause in the Amending Bill, which with some modification was passed by the House ill the early hours of yesterday morning after a prolonged debate, was clause 12, which embodies the vexed question of the selection of teachers. The consultation betwe'en committees and boards under the old Act was frequently a farce, and the compromise of 1110,3 has proved utterly unworkable. To ensure a real consultation of the committee concerned in a' particular appointment without allowing it a free, hand to veto or obstruct, ami subject lo this condition to give the Board an absolute discretion, are the objects which are aimed at, and which were reasonably secured by clause 12 of the Bill. An amendment lo the clause was carried oil tile motion of the .Minister for Education, enabling school committees. to select a teacher from four na-mes -nlimiuwl-v tire r>oarn. wmie usage has to a certain extent given | school committees a certain amount ot | latitude in the selection of teachers, if I is a practise ihat, in the interests of I scholars—whose interests are para- | mount lo every other phase of the eclnf cation question—should not lie any * further extended than is now provided for.

Much as the energy and self-sac-rifice of school committees is to be admired, and greatly as their services >■ have stimulated interest in the schooling of the young, it would be idle to overlook the fact that these bodies cannot "possess the same breadth of view, the same general grasp, or the same freedom from partial or personal considerations, as the boards of which they are the constituents. Such ail inferiority, as was recently pointed out bv a writer in a contemporary, nvolve- no aspersion on these committees, lint is the inevitable result of their horizon being limited by a single school, while every board numbers its , . schools by the dozen. The clause as it ' will now read probably means that the j . board will submit four names to com- . mitlees, in the order in which they . consider their fitness for election; to 1 all intents and purposes that number one on tile list is to be appointed unless the committee can show cause why 1 that candidate is not so suitable for the particular school as some other candidate 07i the list. The Minister has declared that lie has been unable to see his way to the adoption of any other system to thai in force under which schools are graded - according to the average attendance, and the salary of the teacher regulated by the grade of his school. A good deal may be said against the.soundness of such a principle, ff (he hands of the Minister were not tied bv Ihe amount of Ihe funds placed at his disposal, no doubt he would adopt other' and more liberal principles, but. as was pointed out in the House on Thursday, he can only do the best he can with the means placed at his disposal, and in any eiitieisms levelled at liis administration. and proposed legislation, it would be well lo remember this fact. .On the whole, the Minister for Kdncalion is to he congratulated on bringing forward an Education Ihll that morn closely apprnaehes giving sntisfaetion to I all the interests concerned than anv of j its predecessors. ,