OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, Issue 3605, 19 August 1912, Page 2

OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM

THE COMMISSION’S REPORT. VIEWS OF MR MALCOLM M'LEQD CENTRALISATION OBJECTED TO The report framed by the Education Commission is being dist-nsseu throughout the Dominion, and a variety of views have been express :u on the conclusions of the Commissioners. Some have criticised it incisively, the majority have agreed with mort o the recommendations, and none have accepted it as a whole. In order to guago local opinion, ‘ “Gisborne Times” reporter waited on Mr. Malcolm McLeod, one of-the Osborne representatives on- the Ha vim s Bay Education Boaid, and lea.n-f' his views on the report. , “At first blush,’’ said Mr. McLeod, “the report seems a very good one. No doubt the Commission went thoroughly into the matter, for. they have furnished a lot of information new to the general public, but to we who get the Departmental reports regularly and Parliamentary papers on education, there is absolutely nothing new. . “They profess,” he continued, to bo able'to save £54,000 annually under the new scheme. And they purpose amending the complexity of the present system of education obtaining in the Dominion. I maintain that they are going to make it more complex. The suggested advisory board really means the centralisation of the government of the education system. They propose putting Hawke’s Bay, Wanganui and l Taranaki into one Board, which means that the whole of tlie district -from the East Cape down to the Manawatu Gorge and across tile Wanganui will be under the control of Palmerston North -or Wanganui, probably the latter. For the Hawke’s Bay Board there is a staff of two inspectors, a secretary, an assistant, and a typiste. We will presume that the Wanganui.and Taranaki Boards are working in the same way, with the same staffs. Make one hoard of the three and you will require extra staffing. so that there could not possibly ho a reduction in expenses. The whole of the Poverty Bay district would, probably, get representation by only one member, because the new Board was to have 12 members, meaning four for each of the districts named. “Then, again, to show the complexity I see in it, the report suggests that the Advisory Board should sit in Wellington twice every year. This Board would lay down certain rules, and would govern the Education Boards. There is provision for local Boards where there is a population of MiJU. For instance, Gisborne could have a school board to govern the schools in the town and the immediate suburbs, and then school committees would he still in force in the outer schools. At present two inspectors do the whole of the Hawke’s Bay Education district, and the report proposes the chief inspector (£GOO to £650 a year): two senior inspectors (£SOO to £550): and three regular inspectors (at £4OO to £450) for the new district.

“The proposal to get contributions for education from local rates will never, in my opinion, become law in this country. There would Ire quite a storm against the system. “The Commission proposes to do away with the Native schools branch and administer the Native schools by means of the Education Boards. The six inspectors proposed' for each Board, I maintain, could not do the work, because our present inspectors have as much as they can do. If you throw the Native schools upon them their work will be greatly increased. The Native schools now keep two inspectors employed throughout the Dominion.