EDUCATION COMMISSION

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 303, 19 June 1912, Page 5

EDUCATION COMMISSION

A LADY'S EVIDENCE. By Telegraph—Press Association _. . Dunedin, Tuesday. Giving evidence before the Educatioa Commission, Miss Ross, principal of Girton College, said the primary schools' syllabus demanded too much of outside subjects. The secondary school* would welcome Government inspection, so long as their curricula were not interfered with. Mr Pryde, ex-sesretary of the Otafo Education Board, depreciated the ward system and favored one large electorate. He thought the Department should put more trust in the boards, whose- recommendations were frequently passed" over in favor of reports by rangers and what not. Mr. Waters, a business man, said the primary education of to-day did not produce lads so well fitted for business life as it did twenty years ago.

PROPOSED CENTRALISATION. Dunedin. Last Night. . At the sitting of the Education Commission this afternoon Mr. Bossence, inspector of schools, said that the increase in the cost of education was due to a recognition of the importance of the subject to the well-being of the community, and the acknowledgment of the necessity for thoroughly equipping children for the battle of life. There wasno overlapping between preliminary and. other schools. He hoped the time would ' come when every school would have a workroom or laboratory. He thought the authorities should consider the*question of a differentiated syllabus for girls' high schools, in recognition of the essential difference between the sexes. He thought more time should be devotedl to nature study in schools. Uncertificated teachers in rural schools might be allowed to take the D certificate in more than two sections. Mr. 0. C. Israel, a member of the Education Hoard, advocated closing a ber of small schools and teaching children living within a radius of ten miles at well-equipped central schools. He was opposed! to the curtailment of the powers of school committees. The moral tone in some country schools Was not good.