" EDUCATIONAL PROSPECTS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 310, 6 December 1873, Page 3

" EDUCATIONAL PROSPECTS.

(To the Editor.) Sin,— ln 1872 Otago spent £21.997, from the Provincial funds, in support of its schools. TSjb munificence of this appropriation will be apparent from the following comparison : — Education, entire colony £5A,676 Education, Qtago 21,997 Notwithstanding this exceedingly generous • expenditure, it is on undeniable fact that many teachera in village schools are lamentably ignorant. One male teacher, on whom I am now fixing my mm I's e;e, not very long ago, bathed, I am informed, in a lagoon, unshaded by trees, and when I regret to say some of liis pupils were pawing by. That many village teachers are of ton intoxicated, I can prove — that is to say, unless mj fcllowwitiiesscs are determined on tailing drunkenness by the excusing title of " sickness." Numerous Otago teachers have never passed any examination, either oral or theoretical. In view of the exptn.liture of the above stun, is not. tho present mental condition of many Otago teachers disgraceful to 'all concerned ? But what can you expect for £60 per year ? A teacher should be a married man. .Tust imagine sup^O'tmg a wife and family, and a a committee's impudence, on £60 per year. The village commit tecs arc usually composed of of local men whodo not knew big B from the track of agoose. Even in Oamaru, acommitteeman asked a poor child to spell roiuj-da-rous, [rawfesaoMS,] 'but pronounced it neither in French nor English. A teacher's training school will not cure the evil of having incompetent village teachers — men who are unsound ill mind aud body. A trained teacher, as a r,ule, unless ho be an imbecili) would net work fot^tfiO per year. Consequently, to long as salaries are ridiculously lovr, a trail i ;g suhoo' for masters and mKtrts'es will not cure the radical evil existing in > iliage namely, ridiculously impotent teachers. A few exceptionally valuable village teachers exist, who will abandon their petty salaries at the first favorable opportunity ; but oae goo 1 teacher will not atone for the evils produced by a.n army of tutorial imbtv iles. — I am, &c, X l r Z.