THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, OCTOBER. 16, 1909. THE EDUCATION REPORT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9623, 16 October 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, OCTOBER. 16, 1909. THE EDUCATION REPORT.

The Education Report is always interesting—to those who do not forget that they themselves have been scholars and candidates, and that in the public and private schools of the Dominion the future of the nation is being influenced and moulded. There is much food for thought in the reflection that the fundamental conception of modern popular education has already become obsolete, and that we no longer regard it as a laudable national ambition to ground every child in "the three R's." Merely to read, to write, to understand simple arithmetic, is now to be but poorly and indifferently educated, although it may still be claimed with confidence that those who do these things will find the portals of Knowledge opened wide before them. How fast we are moving from this state of educational simplicity, which many look back upon with regret, made philosophic by the certainty that neither New Zealand nor any other part of the civil . ised world can piasibly retrace its steps, is indicated by the remarkable fact that the number of candidates for the various examinations conducted by the Department has practically doubled during the past four years, and iiow total over 5,500 annually. Nearly 900 primary school scholars qualified last year for junior free places in the secondary schools, while over 1,300 candidates qualified for senior free places. Taking these figures in conjunction with the matriculation of over 1,000 students annually—in a European population of about one million —it is plain that an almost revolutionary movement is quietly proceeding, and that during the present century the educational qualifications of the great mass of our population will become fundamentally different to what they were during the past history of the country. For this must be observed: that the whole body of children are moving, more or less pronouncedly, in the direction marked by the examination tests, and that there is a most untnistakabie tendency for the proportion of those reaching the higher gradings to constantly increase. It is true that a check seemed to be inflicted upon this tendency last year, owing to the almost inexplicable lack of co-ordination between the examiners and the teachers, but this may be faiily treated as a Departmental indiscretion, which in the ordinary course of events is exceedingly unlikely to recur. That the educational system, as we have it, haa'many weakness??, and Is

capable of very great improvement, goes without saying. All innovations excite criticism, and there is a most natural inclination on the part of all who have profited by a discarded

method to question the superiority of that which has replaced it. Yet, in spite of this, it must be generally admitted that education was never rrore popular or more averagely effective than it is to day, and that its trend is steadily towards the practical and the progressive. Thi- Dominion is spending a very large amount annually m educating its democracy, remarks the Aucklmd "Herald," and it must console ns to know that though the rising goneration may fail to realise our na f .ional ambitions through inlifference they will not be able to plead ignorance. A little knowledge is not the most dangerous thing, particularly when a little knowledge enables every citizen to understand and appreciate greater knowledge in others. The danger is not in over-education, but In unprofitable education, which is a totally different phase of the question.