[Appendix D

E.--2.

the results speak for themselves : B.A. pass —92 candidates, 87 passed ; advanced —1 candidate, 1 passed ; honours —1 candidate, 1 passed ; diploma —2 candidates, 2 passed. The year is notable in that the University for the first time accepted its full responsibility in the higher training of the teaching profession. That the younger members of that profession appreciated their opportunity has been evidenced in many ways -most notably in the desire expressed by many to make some original contribution towards constructive education. The relationship of the training college to the University and secondary school is a somewhat anomalous one, which might, with benefit to all concerned, be made more definite. The constitution of the present Board of Advice appears to be the means whereby reforms might be most simply inaugurated. In raising this point 1 trust your Board will not misunderstand my motive. Its management of the institution in the past has invariably been directed towards its efficiency, but there are now many factors involved which are beyond its power of control (e.g., secondary teaching practice, certification of teachers, &c), but over which the managing body should have more executive power. Certificates. —One hundred and twenty-two students completed their course of training in December, and on the joint results of examinations and College recommendations the following certificates were issued : No recommendation (course incomplete), 6 ; D, 10 ; D and partial C, 26 ; C, 70 ; B, 9 ; A, 1 : total, 122. Since its inception in 1905 the College has turned out over 1,000 certificated teachers —that is practically one-fifth of the total number of teachers now employed in tho primary schools of the Dominion. I think I may, on behalf of these students, at feast make the claim that their work and influence have brought college and school closer together, both in practice and in aims and ideals. The recent revision of the Teachers' Certificate Regulations has materially assisted in this direction by requiring a larger measure of more purely professional work. All our students were, within a reasonable time of the close of their training, placed in positions. One aspect of this matter appears to us to deserve mention. For several years the proportion of students appointed to assistantships in large schools has steadily decreased, while the number of pupil-teachers and probationers entering the College has increased. The result is that our ideal of a post-college probationership appears to be further off than ever. I quite admit that the preparatory year or two years of teaching experience has certain advantages, but, notwithstanding these, we are convinced that (1) the average pupil-teacher at a very critical period of his life acquires loose and irregular habits of study ; (2) his practice in teaching, however carefully supervised (of necessity it is often not supervised at all), is entirely empiric, and, having no foundation in principle, becomes merely learning " the tricks of the trade." 1 further question either the fairness or the expediency of asking a busy teacher to undertake such double training. The post-college probationership obviates Doth those disadvantages, and would give what might practically be a third effective year of training —all students on leaving the College to become probationary teachers in selected schools for one or two years. The present two years of preliminary apprentieeniiip could well be spent under expert direction at a secondary school, as is done in several of the Australian States. I have discussed this matter on many occasions with the staff (both of the College and the normal schools), and, while opinions are divided on matters of detail, it is generally acknowledged that — (1) By tho second year there is practically no difference in the teaching-capacity shown by A and B students ; (2) the B students are generally the more enthusiastic aoout their professional work; (3) the average B student has a more substantial scholarship; (4) no serious falling-off in the quality of entrants would follow the complete elimination of the pupil-teacher. Teaching Practice. —The problem of providing adequate teaching practice for nearly three hundred students has been our greatest difficulty, and it appears to us that the only satisfactory solution is the association of all the best city schools for practice purposes. The present system of payment to selected teachers places too many limitations on both College and headmaster. We feel that the school rather than the individual teacher should undertake the work, and be recompensed by a more liberal staffing. Arrangements for the practice of those who intend taking up secondary teaching are most unsatisfactory, as tho whole responsibility of providing this practice is thrown on the College, which has no official connection whatever with the secondary schools available. The disestablishment of the secondary department at Thorndon in 1917 was agrood to on the understanding that tho Education Department would make other official provision. This has never been done, and we are forced to the position of asking for tho ro-ostablistmient of our secondary department. Social, &c. —Every student, in addition to his own work, is called upon to take his part in tho College life by being an active member of the glee and dramatic clubs, the Debating Society, and the Students' Association. The benefits resulting have been manifest in many ways, but in none more conspicuously than in the fact that the whole institution has never worked more smoothly and effectively. The school has long been divided on the supposedly rival claims of tho individual as opposed to those of the community, but it is slowly learning that they are complementary aspects of human progress. Great discoveries, great undertakings, great ideas, are the result of social as much as individual work, and consequently education cannot afford to neglect any means that make for training in citizenship, and its institutions must provide opportunities tor actual living as citizens. Tho teaching of history, or civics, or morality, or patriotism alone is futile, just because it is true that thought is useless unless it loads to action. The school is a community "in little," but no school is so small that it cannot provide tho best possible training-ground for all the civic virtues that really count. The potential power of a training college is such that the responsibilities outlined above appear to us to require continual reiteration.

V