PENALISING THE CHRISTIAN BROTHERS’ SCHOOL

New Zealand Tablet, 17 April 1919, Page 18

PENALISING THE CHRISTIAN BROTHERS’ SCHOOL

FATHER COFFEY STATES THE FACTS.

The following letter from the Very Rev. J. Coffey, Diocesan Administrator, appeared in last Thursday’s Otago Daily Times, and Dunedin Evening Star :

Sir, —Your note on the report of the Education Board respecting the refusal of the Minister of Education to allow the two winners of the senior scholarships to take out their scholarships at the Christian Brothers' School is substantially correct. There is another side to the question, however, and as the action of the Minister casts an apparent slur on the school, I ask you in fairness to publish the other side. The Minister's refusal Tests on two points, contained in what he is pleased to call the adverse report of the inspector who visited the school on September 26, 1918: —(1) The teaching of science, especially physics, "owing to lack of apparatus, was not up to the requirements." (2) The secondary department of the school was understaffed, not having one teacher to every 25 boys. Both objections are substantially true, or were true at the time of the inspection. The authorities of the school were asked by the department to remedy these defects. One has been remedied by the appointment of an extra teacher, which brings the staff up to the requirements of the Education Department; therefore that cause of objection was removed before the scholarships were withdrawn—nay, even before they were won. The other source of objection—"the lack of apparatus"—is being removed as fast as the apparatus can be procured in the Dominion. Now I am prepared to place the report on the Christian Brothers' School side by side with the report on any of the secondary schools in the Dominion, and if it is not up to the average (I believe it is above the average) of the others, I am prepared to give in to the Minister. The school was examined and registered as a secondary school in 1915. It was next inspected in 1916. The inspector's report says: "The teachers are qualified." "The methods of teaching are on sound line?.'' "The boys appear keenly interested in their work." "A reasonable standard of neatness and care was noticeable in the written work." "Latin is good in the highest form, and very satisfactory in the intermediate." "The English language is taught in a thorough fashion." "The secondary department of this school is efficient." The school was again visited by a departmental inspector on October 3, 1917. The report says: "The first-year pupils have covered a good year of secondary work in mathematics, French, and English (in which subject the reading was particularly good)." "The second-year pupils have covered well up to the intermediate standard in their French, mathematics, and English." "Science, both theoretical and practical, has been covered and the answering in this subject showed a good knowledge of the elements." "The school has a good laboratory, well fitted up and equipped." "Generally speaking, I consider that satisfactory work has been clone, and that the science equipment is good." The school was examined on September 26, 1918. I have given the two points that our attention was called to in this report, and which we were asked to improve on. In the foregoing you have the kernel of the reports (over a period of three years since the school .was gazetted as a secondary school in the terms of the Education Act of 1914) on which I am prepared t-o submit that the Minister of Education is not justified in the action he has taken. I now ask you to publish the results of the public examinations for which the boys attending tha school sat this year:

Two junior scholarships and two senior scholarships were also gained by the school. In the senior scholarship the highest marks for Otago were gained by a pupil of the school. In the junior scholarship the highest marks for the whole Dominion were gained by a pupil of the school. In face of such a record may I ask again, Is the Minister justified in saying the school is not efficient? I say he is not, and I have sufficient faith in the sense of justice of the majority of your readers to think that they will also say he is not justified. I may also say that we do not intend to let the matter rest where it is at present. I have asked the Minister to reconsider his decision, and in doing so I have pointed out to him that it has not appeared from the published reports of the public high schools that the regulations were fully carried out in them during the past four years—war time—and in any case, in proportion to the number of pupils attending the schools, none of them can show a better result than the Christian Brothers' School. Why, therefore, brand this particular school as inefficient ? If the Minister is out to penalise denominational schools let him come out in the open and not hide behind one of his departmental officers. Let me add that he had another course open to him which would be accepted as just by all parties —viz., allow the scholarships to be taken out, and if at any time during the currency of them he was not satisfied with the course of instruction given or the progress made by the holders of the scholarships, he could withdraw them. No one would have objected to that course. But to deny the boys the possibility of success is not m accordance with the broad-mindedness and the interest for education we might expect from a Minister of Education.—-I am, etc., James Coffey, St. Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin

Entered. Passed. Per cent Matriculation ... ... 3 3 ... 100 Public Service ... 3 3 ... 100 Intermediate ... ... 10 8 ... ■80 Senior Scholarship 4 4 ... 100 Junior Scholarship 9 9 100