The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 6, 1884.

Thames Star, Volume XV, Issue 4859, 6 August 1884, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 6, 1884.

One o£ the very necessary reforms which will probably be attended to in dealing" with the Education question in the coming session is that in connection with Education Boards as at present constituted. As far as the Auckland experience of these bodies goes, it would appear that they want reforming out of existence. For a considerable time past the vagaries of the Auckland Board have been the cause of hearty and solid contempt; that body has allowed itself to be entirely controlled by two of its officers, and has on a fewloccasions shown that one, if not more, of its members has been able to exercise in it, sectarian influence in dealing with teachers. In meddling with affairs which have been beyond .their depth some of the members have Betrayed woful ignorance, and have secured in place of kudos for their heroic actions, scornful ridicule for the "hashes" they have got themselves into. The Inspector has long been travelling as "far as.his tether would permit, and apparently has an idea that teachers, as a body, are a spiritless lot of machines, and must be keptgoingaccording to a system which he regulates; they must not know what independence is—serfdom under their highnesses the Inspector and Secretary is the lot assigned to them. Last week was published a list of schools which were deemed by the Inspector to be—after his visit to them—in anunsatis-

factory state. Such a list should never have found its way into other hands than those of members of the Board or its officers, . It is manifestly unfair— even allowing the inspection to be all that it should be—that the impression of one man, not an angel as regards disposition or infallibility, should be printed in a newspaper to the detriment of any teacher. We hear of the late, inspection having been conducted in a way that would suggest.a change ia the system now adopted of reaching an estimate of the work done in | schools ; we have been told that the i Inspector frightens the life out of his | examinees sometimes, and by bis peculiar manner terrifies the children into a state of stupidity ; after this he writes reports that the state of the school is " unsatisfactory," and allows such things to get into the public prints, to the injury, of the teachers and schools reported upon. This system of Provincial Educational control must be swept away altogether, ,or very considerably altered. The people's interest will not admit of pampered officials, inflated with an exaggerated idea of their own importance, lowering the status of teachers, bringing them into contempt, and injuring the system under which they live, and by which they are kept. It is well known that certain teachers, by some good,fortune or other means, have almost complete immunity from inspectorial rubs and snubs, while other less favored ones find out what it is to have a magnate or two—who fancy they have the power of the Czar of all the Bussias—with the least feeling of unfriendliness towards them. , There appears to be a great inclination towards .the encouragement of fetishism, in allowing .an unchecked growth of these abuses, and they will certainly, unless eradicated, sap the roots of the present educational system. Sim* | plification of the working of the Act is what is most required. Let the administration of whatever system is decided upon be from one central source, and the local influence, as far as power goes, be done away with. The present method of electing committees for purely local purposes in the matter of the management of details might be with advantage continued, but it would,, we think, be wise were all.other management to be departmental. We trust to see a radical change made in the present system within the next few months, and amongst the alterations carried out, some in the direction we now indicate. '