The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2,1883. THE WELLINGTON EDUCATION BOARD.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1525, 2 November 1883, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2,1883. THE WELLINGTON EDUCATION BOARD.

Tub late meetinggof the Wellington Education BoarOfeifyiusually interesting, as gevcr'ajlll&hons 0 f special importance if not determined. Mr BuNNY.did good service by criticising tho standard gyitera of our schools, He complained that the Board's statistics were misleading. He said, "The schools as a whole were not examined, but a bad systom prevailed by 'which a master picked out his most promising pupils, bestowed his chief attention on them, and presented only these selected pupils for examination. In that'way a master was able to boast of &)• or 100 per cont. of passes. But what became of all the other children in the school who wero not presented for examination? They were kept back so as to -hide the weakness of the school as •a- whole." This is putting the case somewhat strongly, but there is,a, good deal of force in his remarks. ljj%standards are howover, the measur&of school's progress, the only tesl» can apply. The standfcfemselves require revising and modifying to meet the objections which Mr Bunny raises,. As they t arc fixed at present they put too great a pressure on both teachers and scholars. While this is the caso there is certain under any circumstances to bo a percentage of evasion, Another serious question raised at this meeting by Mr Bunny was the utility of the Normal School. This establishment costs a couple of thousand a year, and cannot turn out a single male teacher per annum. It produces a certain number of sweet girl graduates, but from a commercial point of view the latter are not so profitable as the sterner sex, By the time a lady teacher in New Zealand is trained she is apt to abandon the profession in favor of Bomo matrimonial enterprise or other. It is evident that tho Normal School as it is now working is a costly failure, The third subject which Mr Buhny ventilated at this meeting was that of home lessons, On this question there was a considerable divergence of opinion. The Chairman held that neither the Board nor the committees could interfere with teachers in this matter. Mr Bunny held that the committee had a right to interfere, and Mr Hutchison proposed referring the question to the Education Department. Mr Bunny, though he expresses himself more vigorously than is sometimes desirable, is evidently doing good work at the Board by stirring to face difficulties which occur in administering the Act. We lire getting very excellent results from our present educational system, but it does not follow that for this reason we should ignore its blots and imperfections.