The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1883. SCHOOL COMMITTEES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1488, 20 September 1883, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1883. SCHOOL COMMITTEES.

Mr Henry Bunny has recently been fighting the battle of School Committees. Ho occupies a somewhat equivocal position in being not'only a member of a local committee, but also a member of the Education Board. Still we are glad that he has raised the question of the powers of committees, because they are, as a rule, tolerated as harmless and almost useless bodies by the Board and its Inspector, and snubbed by head masters as beitig inconvenient. The functions of local committees arc not very clearly defined by the Act, and by common consent they appear to have been reduced to a minimum. So long as they restrict themselves tosuch operations as cleaning windows and repairing fences they are treated with courtesy and respect, but if they meddle with any question of school discipline or teaching they are at once sat upon and put iu their proper place. We were amused the other day when a teacher in the Wairarapa magnified a concession he had made to the wishes of his local committee by saying that he had done so at the risk of offending other head teachers, Apparently there is some sort of organisation among head teachers which determines the footing on which committees are placed. The present position of school administration is extremely favorable to teachers, They are nominally subject to three authorities—the Committee, the Inspector, and the Board. The Board knows little or nothing about them, beyond what it learns from the Inspector. If they satisfy that officer they are right with the Board. They have therefore to be prepared to pass muster with the Inspector twice. a year, If ,thoy do

this they have on their aide' two out of the'three authorities and can'afford to ignore as superfluous and undesirable tho advice of their local committees, We. confess that we should like to see the .hands of local committees strengthened somewhat. It is true iihat we have many excellent teachers who are doing good work for us, but it is also true that we have many weak teachers who are doing unsatisfactory work, and the Board,, either .from want of knowledge or policy, does not take upon itself the task of distinguishing between the efficient and the nonefficient teachers on their staff. Tho local committees know well enough when they: have good men. in their schools and when they have weak ones, l)ii t then these committees are not supposed to have any voice in such matters. The taxpayers of the colony are paying an enormous sum annually for the education of their children, and a good deal of it is absolutely wasted and misspent. The Boards do not check this waste of public money probably because they have not sufficient knowledge of the working of the various schools of the districts to act with any certainty or decision, and the committees cannot control it, because their opinions are not, as,a rule, asked on' wanted. If Mr Bunny can succeed in shewing that committees have some' status under tho Act, that they are not exactly dummies, he may infuse a little vigor into the administration of tho Education Act in the Wellington district. . "..