EDUCATION: TRAINING OF TEACHERS. [In continuation of E.-1c., 1905.]

Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1906 Session II, E-01c

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Session 11. 1906. NEW ZEALAND.

EDUCATION: TRAINING OF TEACHERS. [In continuation of E.-1c., 1905.]

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

No. 1. EXTEACT FBOM THE TWENTY-NINTH ANNUAL BEPOBT OF THE MINISTEB OF EDUCATION. Training of Teachees. Last year Parliament appropriated two sums of £5,000 each for alterations and additions to the Wellesley Street School, Auckland and the Thorndon School, Wellington, to adapt them for the pur! poses of training colleges for teachers in these centres. The training colleges at Auckland and Wellington thus provided were opened at the beginning of 1906, and now with the two training colleges already for many years in operation at Christchurch and Dunedin, but recently reorganized under more liberal conditions complete the provision of a training college for each of the four University districts Sift? 1 . 1 ? m New is still so great that many ex-pupil-teachers without adequate additional training are being employed as teachers, and the needs of many of the smaller schools are still served by persons who, whatever their attainments may be, would manifestly benefit materially by even a short period of training under proper direction. The allowances to students are however so liberal, and the advantages of careful practical training so obvious, that the attendance at the training colleges is fast increasing, and it is expected that before long the numbers seeking admission will tax the present accommodation to its fullest extent. a n he / U^ ber ° f Btude nte during the current year attending the various training colleges is as follows ■ Auckland 19 women and 9 men-28; Wellington, 42 women and llmen-53; Christchurch 48 women and 17 men-65 ; Dunedin, 65 women and 10 men-75. The total for the whole colony is 221 174 women and 47 men, as compared with 105 for 1905. y ' Connected with each training college is a " normal " or practising school, which includes, besides the ordinary classes of a public elementary school, a model " country " school of forty children and a secondary department The former justifies its existence by familiarising prospective teachers with the conditions of one of the most difficult tasks a teacher has to undertake-namely, the proper management and education, single-handed, of a self-contained school group-of children of various ages from five to fifteen and at various stages of development. The secondary department will give an opportunity for training those who intend to take up secondary work either in the high schools or in the upper departments of district high schools. PF Under the regulations gazetted, students of a training college take English and other non-special subjects at the University colleges, and attend lectures in the methods of teaching and in the principles and history of education under the Principal, who is also in each case by special appointment the Uni-versity-college lecturer on education. Every student is required to take up practical work in at least one branch of science, special attention being directed to nature-study and elementary agriculture Handwork suitable for schools also receives due attention; and concurrently with all this there ia frequent teaching-practice in the normal school. The salaries offered for the staff of the training colleges are, it is hoped, high enough to attract Persons of good standing and experience. Pupil-teachers in any education district who have satisfactory completed their term of service and have passed the Matriculation Examination may enter at the training college most convenient for them, the course being two years. Such students receive in addition to the amount of University-college fees the sum of £30 a year each if the recipient lives at home and £60 a year if compelled to live away from home in order to attend the college. Advantages not quite so great are also offered to other qualified candidates who have not served as pupil-teachers Others again may be admitted for shorter or longer periods, although they may have been for some time engaged m the practice of their profession, but in such cases no allowances are payable „„„^ c 1 1 5? B * of maintenance of the four colleges in full working-order will be for 1906 about £23 000—£11,100 for allowances and fees of students, and £11,900 for salaries and house allowances of stalls. It must he remembered that this provides not only for the efficient training of over two hundred teachers, but for the instruction of over sixteen hundred children in attendance at the practising schools The amount provided during 1905 for the training of teachers was £16,342, made up as follows'Salaries of staffs of training colleges (two), £3,395 ; students' allowances and University fees £4 323 : grants for special instruction in handwork, £1,900; grants for general purposes of training colleges' t.}„, ' rallwa y fares of teachers m training and instructors of training classes established by Boards' £4,624. J '

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INC. z. REPOBTS ON TRAINING COLLEGES IN OPERATION. NORTH CANTERBURY. Exteact from Repoet oe Education Boaed. In his report, which is appended, the Director of the Training College gives full particulars as to the number of students that entered for training during the year. Mr. Watkins also refers to the difficulties met with in the children's department owing to the many changes that have taken place. The newer conditions under which the training and practising departments are now carried on have necessitated extensive alterations to several of the class-rooms. The increased grant lately made by the Department for training colleges has enabled the Board to increase the staff, which can now be arranged on a more satisfactory basis. There has been some difficulty in finding a suitable location for the science laboratory. The conversion of part of the old drill-shed for the purpose has been definitely decided upon. Repoet of the Principal of the Training College (Me. Edwin Watkins, 8.A.). We began the year with thirty-one students, of whom twenty-three were new ones and eight were students remaining for a second year. All of these were ex-pupil-teachers from North Canterbury. Later on, one more pupil-teacher from North Canterbury entered; four also entered from South Canterbury and one from Nelson. There were also admitted seven non-pupil-teachers under clause Bof the regulations for entrance. This gave a total of forty-four, of whom six were males. One student also came a few times to watch teaching, under clause 11. One student withdrew in July. All the students attended some lectures at Canterbury College, and more than one-third did most of their work, if not all, in University classes. At the latter part of the year three passed the Canterbury College examination for the first year, six passed for the second year, and two for the third year, one of them, Miss Barker, winning the Canterbury College Exhibition in French. In the University examinations seven sat for the first section of the B.A. degree, of whom four passed ; two sat for the final section of the 8.A., and both passed. For the Matriculation, sixteen sat, of whom ten passed. In the departmental examinations, five sat for part of C, of whom four obtained partial C and one fell ill early in the examination and was unable to go on; twenty-six sat for D, of whom seven obtained full D, fifteen obtained partial D, and four failed. Two other students were unable to take the examination through illness. In the children's department the year has been one of anxiety. The school had to be converted into a mixed one ; the staff had to be reduced and rearranged ; still further changes of teachers followed ; a complete change in the practice-teaching of the students had to be made ; the year was the first one of the introduction of the new syllabus for the standards, and only the second one of the introduction of a new syllabus for the students' certificate syllabus. Changes such as these are not easily met all at once, and in working out into shape they presented serious difficulty. But after the school examination in July, when the new system had had time to settle down somewhat, a good start was made which promises to work out well this year.

OTAGO. Extract from the Report of the Education Board. The report of the Principal of the Training College is attached. Under the regulations for the conduct of training colleges, the College controlled by the Board for thirty years has become almost, if not entirely, a Government institution. It is true the regulations set out with the declaration " The Education Board of any district in which any training college is situated, hereinafter called the ' Board,' shall have the entire control and management of such college, subject to the provisions hereinafter contained " ; but " the provisions hereinafter contained " provide for everything that is essential to the control and management, and divest the Board of every shred of real authority. The relation of the Board to the Training College is precisely that of a Committee to the school of its district, and the Department is to training colleges what the Education Board of a district is to the schools of that district. That, it seems to the Board, exactly defines the position in which the Boards are placed by the regulations. Realising as it did and does that a single examination is not always an adequate test of a student's acquirements, and above all that a teacher's personality is of greater importance than are his literary qualifications, and that personality cannot be tested at all by a written examination, the Board proposed that the teacher's certificate should depend not solely upon a single written examination applied by the Department at the end of the year, but in large part upon the results gained in class and college examinations conducted by the Principal and his staff during the currency of the year, and that the judgment of the Principal as to the fitness or unfitness of a student for a teacher's certificate should be the chief determining factor in the classification of the students under his charge. Regulations to give effect to this proposal were submitted to the Department; but neither the one nor the other found favour there. It would, the Board considered, be a great boon to settlers living remote from surgical aid to have among them a person capable of administering first aid in cases of accident, and the Board accordingly recommended that skill in this branch of work should be allowed to count towards a pass for a teacher's certificate ; but the recommendation was rejected by the Department. Recognising the importance of what is implied in " nature-study " and the impossibility of its adequate treatment by teachers who have done little or no field-work, the Board recommended that the following course should be substituted for some of the work at present prescribed for the teacher's certificate :— (a.) A course of experimental work in elementary physics and chemistry, extending over the winter session, (o.) A summer course of outdoor studies having for its subject-matter the meteorology, physical geography, geology, and plant and animal life of the district. The plant and animal life may be made the chief subject of investigation, but the relation of the others to it must be kept in view ; and, as opportunity offers, the attention of the students should be directed to significant facts irrespective of the branch of nature-knowledge to which they are related. Every outdoor excursion should have a definite purpose, and should be carefully planned beforehand ; and accurate notes should be made by the students of what they observe in the field. The notes made and the objects collected during the outdoor excursions will furnish material for study in the lecture-room.

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To this, as to the other proposals made by the Board, the Department answered, " It does not seem practicable or, indeed, desirable at present to alter the requirements for teachers' certificates in the way suggested by the Board." Of the recommendations made by the Board, one was adopted—■ the recommendation, namely, that the bursary for trainees who have during their training to live away from their homes should be greatly increased. Sixty-two students entered the College at the beginning of the session ; 1 retired during the year, leaving 61 on the roll at the 31st December, 1905. Twenty-nine were in their second year and 32 were in their first year, as follows : First year, 2 males and 30 females ; second year, 2 males and 27 females. Fifty-three of the students attended classes at the University. Eight students who had not passed Matriculation were not required to undertake University work. Report of the Principal of the Training College (Me. D. R. White, M.A.). The Staff of the College. — The staff of the College consists of the Principal, Mr. D. R. White, M.A. ; Vice-Principal, Mr. A. Marshall, B.A. ; mistress and instructress in kindergarten work, Miss C. Haig ; master of the secondary department, Mr. J. W. Hardy ; tutor in English language and literature, Miss F. Bressey, M.A. ; drawing-master, Mr. D. C. Hutton ; teacher of singing and music, Mr. A. M. Braik ; teacher of sewing, Miss S. Albert; gymnastics, Mr. John Hanna. On the staff of the primary and practising department there are three male and four female assistants. The Vice-Principal is lecturer on science and headmaster of the primary schools. The handwork course of instruction is undertaken partly by Miss Haig and partly by the Director and teacher in the School of Art. The Number of Students in Attendance. — The College opened in the first week in March. We had in the first term 62 students in attendance, but 1 of these left about the middle of the session, leaving 61 on the roll at the close of the year. There were 29 students in their second year and 32 in their first, as follows : First year, 2 men and 30 women —32 ; second year, 2 men and 27 women—29. Number of Students taking Classes at the Otago University. — Fifty-three students attended classes at the University. Eight students who had not passed Matriculation were not required to undertake University work. In future, however, none but matriculated students will, I hope, be found on our roll, and all who are enrolled will require to attend one or more University classes. Of the 53 students, 17 attended only one class, the remaining 36 took two and in some cases three subjects. Those students who wish to keep terms at the University must take two classes, and those who purpose sitting for the first section of the B.A. degree must qualify in three subjects at least. Of the 36, there were 26 who kept terms —that is, they passed the Annual Class Examination at the University. I think that on the whole this is a very satisfactory result, considering that a number of them had no special training in secondary education. The Number of Students attending the Arts Course at the University. — English, 35 ,- Latin, 16; mental science, 14 ; ■ history and principles of education, 18 ; French, 6 ; mathematics, 4 ; chemistry and physics, 1. The most of the students attended the junior classes, but quite a number were in the senior and advanced classes. Two of our students headed the junior English class, and another secured the prize in junior mental science. The following shows the positions gained by the students in the University class-lists : 18 were placed in the third class, 16 in the second, and 6 in the first class ; and some 12 or 13 failed to pass. All or nearly all of the failures occurred in the junior English class. The work of this class, especially in the history of literature and in philology, is quite beyond many of our students. They cannot possibly give the time to it that is required of them to carry on the first year's work at the Training College. I propose, therefore, next session that students of this class who do not intend keeping terms should be asked to take the English composition and rhetoric class. This class meets twice a week only; and if this arrangement were carried out it would give students more time for a more thorough preparation in the kind of English likely to prove of benefit to them in the language lessons of the primary schools. The Number fresented for the Degree Examination. — Eleven students sat at the November examination —7 for the first section, 3 for the final section of the degree, and 1 for honours. I think this is a very creditable result—better than we shall have next year, unless we have some exceptionally good students entering in 1906. Departmental Examination, 1906.—The candidates from the College this year number for the D Certificate, 31 ; C or partial, 26 ; B certificate, 2 ; A Certificate, 2 : total, 61. The Results of the Departmental Examination, 1905.—These results were reported to the Board in April of this year. In future, according to the new regulation, the annual report on the Training College must be presented to the Board before the 31st December of each year. In conclusion I should like to draw the attention of the Board to the fact that if it continues to admit the maximum number allowed by the regulations, we shall have in another year or so far more teachers than are ever likely to obtain appointments.

No. 3. REPORT ON MELBOURNE TRAINING COLLEGE. By His Honoue Sic Robeet Stout, K.C.M.G. Chief Justice. g lE __ f"! Wellington, 10th May, 1906, I had the honour to receive a letter from you on my leaving Wellington for Australia, asking me if I would be good enough, if I visited the Training College in Melbourne, to state anything regarding it that might be of interest to the Education Department of New Zealand. I visited the Training College, and met the Principal and the students. I also met at the same time the Director of Education in Victoria. The College is situated in a part of the University reserve, and is a brick building. It provides for the residence of the students, and there were when I was there eighty-five students attending the College. The numbers of the sexes of the students were, I was informed, up to this year about equal. At present there are fifty-five men and thirty women there.

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The conditions ofFadmission are the following: State-school pupil-teachers who obtain-a good place in the entrance examination are allowed board and tuition free, on condition that they remain with the Education Department for four years after leaving the College, and that they repay to the Department the sum of £12 for each college year. The ordinary course of the College is a two-years course. Last year the Victorian Parliament voted a sum of money so as to enable each student to obtain £12 per year for pocket-money. If students are non-resident —that is, are living with their families or friends— they receive free tuition and an allowance of £18 per year, as well*as the £12 pocket-money that was voted last year. Candidates for admission who have not been State-school pupil-teachers may compete in the examinations, and the five highest in the examinations are allowed the same privileges as Stateschool pupil-teachers who get a good place in the entrance examination. The College allows other students to attend lectures on payment of £12 per year for the ordinary course, or on payment of £6 per year for the kindergarten course only. The staff of the College includes the Principal and three permanent lecturers. There are also visiting teachers of nature-study, music, elocution, and gymnastics. The three permanent lecturers assist the Principal in the training of the students. This includes criticism lessons, observation lessons, and one week's actual teaching in each month. The whole time of the permanent lecturers is occupied in the -College work. The Principal, in addition to looking after the College and administering it, delivers lectures in the University on education. There are three College courses —(1) the kindergarten course, (2) the primary-school course, and (3) the diploma course. It is only the students who are studying for the diploma course that attend the University. The best students for the second year are allowed to attend the University, which grants a diploma in education. But there is no provision at present for what the New Zealand University grants —namely, a degree in education. The diploma course, which is the highest course in the College, is not equal to the course which our students have to complete before obtaining the degree of education of our University. The great drawback, to my mind, of education in Victoria is that the secondary schools are out of touch with the education system of the State. The secondary schools are either schools connected with the churches or private schools. There are no public secondary schools in the sense of our public secondary schools. There is therefore a want of gradation from the primary schools to the University, and the State concerns itself almost entirely with primary-school education, and the training of teachers to that need. Fortunately for us, our system is not so restricted. We, by our training colleges, train teachers suitable for our secondary as well as for our primary schools. The teaching profession by our system will be placed on a higher level than that of Victoria. In order, however, to compensate in some degree for the lack of secondary schools, a continuation school has been opened in Melbourne. The course there is a two-years course, and it has room for about four hundred pupils. At the conclusion of the course the students will be fit for the matriculation standard. These pupils are then sent to ordinary schools as junior teachers for two years. The best of them at the end of that term it is understood will compete for places in the Training College. I learn from the Principal of the College that it is hoped that similar continuation schools will be established in Bendigo and Ballarat, and perhaps in other centres of population. Perhaps, also, schools such as our district high schools may be established in populous centres. I am of opinion that New Zealand has nothing to learn from the Victorian method of preparing students for the teaching profession. If our present system is continued and developed, and the ideal of a university degree in arts or education kept before our teachers as a necessary equipment for the profession, they will be better trained than those in Victoria. lam strongly of opinion that, especially in the small schools in the country and in the inaccessible districts, the teachers should be highly qualified men and women. I should like to see in every country school a teacher well acquainted with modern literature, and well equipped in, at all events, the sciences of botany and chemistry. If we could get teachers of this class the influence on the country settlers would be great. If the senior pupils were taught chemistry and botany they would be well equipped for a country life, and this teaching would soon have its effect in marked improvements in the methods of practical agriculture. And if the teacher was thoroughly acquainted with modern literature he would be a centre of culture for his district, and life in the country would be relieved of much of the monotony of which many settlers complain. Our country settlers should not only be equipped for the industrial life in which they are engaged, but they should also have the amenities of life that are open to dwellers in cities. It is, in my opinion, of more importance to have country teachers highly educated men and women than even to have highly qualified teachers in the cities. The system that has been adopted of having training colleges in the four centres is, I believe, a wise one, and if the colleges are kept in touch with the University, and if attention is paid to the " new knowledge " —to science—we may with every reason expect to have our education system developed and improved so as to be second to none in any country. I may add that I learn from Mr. Fleming, one of our Inspectors, that he was much pleased with the development of nature-study in the primary schools of Victoria. I had not, unfortunately, time to visit any of the primary schools. From what I learn, however, they are well officered, and the State of Victoria is fortunate in having such an able Director of Education as Mr. Tait In New South Wales, Victoria, and South-Australia, the people are becoming alive to the need of further educational development ; and from what I heard at the Conference of University delegates held in Melbourne, there seems to be a greater desire to perfect the educational institutions than existed some years ago. In fact,the educational spirit that is abroad in Europe and America has also found a home in Australasia, and they are realising that no country can be expected to succeed in the competition of nation with nation in industries, or in anything else, unless its people are thoroughly and systematically trained and educated. I have, &c, The Right Hon. the Minister of Education, Wellington. Robert Stout.

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