BACKBLOCKS EDUCATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 August 1917, Page 7

BACKBLOCKS EDUCATION.

DEPARTMENTAL PROPOSALS. CRITICISED m EDUCATION BOARD. The disabilities under which settlers who take tin land in the back-blocks labor in regard to educational facilities for their children, were strongly impressed upon members of the Taranaki Education Board during their recert trip through the Ohura, whey they came to the unanimous conclusion that the average of nine, at which the Education Department paid the full salary of a teacher, -was too high, and should be reduced, say to five. Below an average of nine, the Department pays a capitation allowance of ill! per head, and the settlers interested have to provide the balance of the salary required, also the necessary building. The Board has interested itself in the. matter of effecting' some improvement. That the Department recognises the need for this is shown by a circular memorandum which has been forwarded to the secretaries of education boards by Dr Anderson, Director of Education, stating that the Department has had under consideration for some time tho question of making better provision for the teachers of grade 0 schools in those localities where it is impossible to make other arrangements for the education of the children. Any increase in the pay of these teachers would, however, require air amendment of the Education Act, for which there may not be an immediate opportunity of making provision. In the meantime education boards are requested to consider other means of improving the efficiency of those and other sma'l schools. Wherever possible, arrangements should bo made for conveyance of the pupils to a larger school, or parents should be encouraged to board their children away from home, so that they may attend a good school. A proposal to increase the allowance for boarding where pupils require to live away from home in order to attend school is at present under consideration. In this connection more advantage should he taken by boards of the provision of the Act under which two or more schools should be grouped as part time schools, and ia that way a higher salary provided as well as a teacher with higher qualification and experience ob J taincd. If two schools are grouped under these provisions, the teacher usually devotes three days a week to each, and his salary is paid as for a grade higher than that of a school with the combined averages of the two grouped schools. This arrangement is found in practice to work out satisfactorily, and the children receive generally bettor instruction than they would under the teachers usually offering for the small salaries payable for grade 0 schools The system is used to a considerable extent in Australia, and the results are commended by the authorities there, but the Auckland Board, which has no less than 130 schools grouped under 65 teachers, is the only New Zealand board that appears to appreciate the value of meant of providing for the education of.the backblock children, At the present time also the saving in teaching power by such grouping of schools is worthy of consideration. On this being read at the meeting ol yjie Taranaki Education Board on Wednesday, the chairman remarked that I'videntiv the Education Department did not really understand tho position of backblocks schools. He deprecated the •ugge-'tion that children should be boarded out, as this would mean that they would be away from all parental control until they were 13 or \i years of age, and it would also mean that the districts would never have schools. The suggestion that arrangements should be made for the conveyance of the children to a larger school he characterised as a ridiculous one in view of the fact thai the roads were usually so bad, and the distances between the schools so great, that there was no chance ot getting the pupils there. The same conditions precluded the establishment of half-time schools, though these had been established by the board where distance would permit. It was. lie said, a pity i from the point of view of the back blocks settler that some one in the Education Department did not realise the conditions under which they -were living. Mr. Trimble characterised the 'proposals as absurd. i Mr. Smith said that the school committees' conference had backed up the Board's proposal that an increased capitation grant should bo given for bacx- , blocks education, and had received i reply that proposals were being prepared 'for submission to Parliament asking for. increased capitation, whereas the present circular stated this was not so. Mr. White -agreed that the proposals did not give the desired relief. Was it not possible, he said, by concentrated action on the part of education hoards io knock some spark of intelligence into the heads of the Department? Mr. Smith suggested that the heads of the Department sh. uld be given 12 months on "the cheap land" in the backblocks. The chairman moved that the 'Board is cf irpinion that tl e contained in the circular do not nr-et the requirements of grade 0 school-;, .and that the Minister be urged to bring in an amendment of the Act in the direction of substituting the word five in lieu of eight in tho fifth schedule of the Education Act, 11)14, sub clause, and that the Department in such cas»s provide a teacher with a minimum salary of £llO- per annum. He pointed out that the Department was prepared to pay £ls capitation for a child's technical education, but was not prepared to pay that amount for the education of backblocks child. The motion was seconded by Mr. Smith and carried unanimously,