The Daily News. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1918. EDUCATIONAL REFORMS.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 November 1918, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1918. EDUCATIONAL REFORMS.

That the Minister of Finance ishould deem it necessary to discourse, in the Budget, upon the question of educational, reforms indicates that the persistent agilatiou of the New Zealand Institute, backed up by the education j boards, school committees' associations and the general public, has made an impression on the Government. The nature of that impression is discernible by the manner in which the subject is dealt with by Sir Joseph 'Ward. In effect, lie refers to several urgent needs, only to point out how impossible it is to expect at the present time that these requirements can be met. Wait, says the Finance Minister, until the teachers Home back from the war, and then [things will.happen. A stock of i plausible excuses appear,? to be a prominent feature in Ministerial equipment, probably because a uhield of that nature is very convenient to fit in with that taihoa policy which helps to act as a barrier to inroads on. the contents of the. Treasury. There is a certain amount of irony in the Finance Minister dilating upon educational needs and reforms, inasmuch as he is generally regarded as the slumbling block to such reforms by reason of his tight grip on the strings of the national purse. It will be noticed that lie takes credit for allotting to education ''"a considerable increase over the amount expended during the previous year," but if he turns back to previous years he will find that the expenditure on this head is continually rising, not by reason of a settled policy of intelligent and practical progress towards placing education on its proper basis according to the ever-changing requirements of the time, but rather to the natural, development of the country, the increase in population, and the need for more schools and teachers. There is something Gilbert inn in Sir Joseph Ward's constitution, or he would not have tackled the task that properly falls to the "Minister of Education. Not that it matters much which of the members of the Cabinet makes allusion to educational needs, for Ihere is very little difference in the fitness of any Minister to undertake a task which needs an imaginative outlook and a thorough grasp of the most difficult problem that the State is called upon to solve. If it pays a manufacturer to scrap his obsolete machinery again and again in order to get better results and supply goods that meet with the ever-changing requirements, it should certainly pay the State to adopt a similar poll;-;, ivhen dealing with the &rente,t and most valuable asset it po.<■ sesses—its embryo manhood and womanhood. Departmental coirhol, as at present constituted, i; jnimieal to the best interests of education. The Minister shelters himself behind the departmental head*:, and the latter appear to make a study of how to place obstacles in the way of all progress unless the idea emanates from themselves We think ii. may be fairly claimed by those who are entitled to give expert ad nee on the subject that the foundation of all education reform in the Dominion is the elimination of the Department as now constituted, to be superseded by a council of experts, periodically renewed by the infusion of fresh blood. In iio other way can this vital work be systematized and adapted to requirements. No real pi ogress can bo made until, the old ruts are ploughed up and new foundations laid. Given a council composed oC competent and trustworthy men, all that Parliament and the Government should be called upon to do would be to vote 'what money was deemed necessary by the council year by year. No doubt the usual cry would he raised about Parliament not parting -with its rights—a theory that has long since been exploded, for Parliament has had no rights for many years, the Government being dictators. It would be a great wrench for Cabinet to give up its nominal control, but the effect oa the education system would be similar to that of the extraction of a decayed tooth—a lasting benefit to the sufferer. The work that now awaits urgent attention is not such as can be successfully carried out by the present men or methods, so that it will be merely a case of submitting to the wrench, and then there is every prospect of the Dominion's system of education being raised ' to & deservedly Mgb. staadard, .Act

cording to Sir Joseph Ward, the most pressing requirement of the present time is "an adequate supply of properly-trained teachers." There is a refreshing irony about this sunemeut, considering that the Finance Minis} er is well aware of the fact that it is his particular department which is mainly responsible for 'this dearth of teachers, by reason of the starvation policy persistently adopted. It is just as absurd to expect that "proper-ly-trained teachers" can be obtained at the inadequate price placed on their services by the Government as it would be to expect a watch purchased for ten or twenty shillings would be equal in quality to a first-class timepiece costing as many guineas. Education has been starved, and if the Finance Minister is not responsible for this, then who is? That is one of the main reasons for advocating the changes mentioned above. Having instituted a system of universal, free education, it must be carried out step by step until the highest rung of the ladder is reached in scholarship, manual, technical and industrial spheres. Like all other constructive undertakings, the secret of success lies in the foundations being of the very best kind whereon to erect the superstructure. This means that the teaching of the infants should only be entrusted to specialists having qualifications particularly fitted for the task, and these should be well paid, especially in the cities and larger towns where the numbers attending the infant classes are considerable. It is equally important that the country schools should be well manned, but the present absurd capitation system cannot possibly be expected to attract specially-trained teachers capable of giving the children the same advantages as at the larger schools. The grading of teachers is a. step in the right direction, but it is useless unless the remuneration is adequate, more especially as the increased cost of living presses hardly on the teaching profession. Teaching and education have vastly different meanings. There are teachers innumerable, but the educationalists are few by comparison. That is mainly the fault of the present haphazard methods of departmental methods. Education includes the inculcation o!" bodily as well as mental principles, the production of sound minds in healthy, clean-living bodies. Unless these two are conjoined, the system fails. We cannot afford failure, so that no expenditure of money should be deemed too large to attain the desired goal. The future demands strenuous efforts being made to equip our children for the battle of life, and this can only be forthcoming by a total reconstruction of the work now controlled by the Department of Education,' but which should be in the hands of a body of men possessed of the required capacity and imbued with enthusiasm for the equipment of the rising generation, so that the best results may be attained—and that body should be unhampered by the lack of necessary funds.