E.—l4.

11

In the 1902 report of the New Zealand Department (p. 7, E.-l, and p. 9, E.-l) appear the following items :— Training classes approved by Education Boards —railway fares of £ s. d. teachers and instructors .. .. .. • • • ■ 2,912 14 8 Grants for training of teachers .. .. .. .. • • 2,325 0 0 Material and apparatus for classes .. .. . • • • 291 19 7 Total £5,529 14 3 Training of Teachers. In respect of this important provision Victoria has at present a great advantage over. New Zealand in her well-equipped residential Training College in the University grounds. No such institution exists in New Zealand, but training has been conducted on the normal-school plan in Christchurch and Dunedin. However, a very potent influence in the education of New Zealand teachers lies in the four University Colleges, situated in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin, and in the excellent secondary schools, which exist in every province. So far as scholarship goes, New Zealand teachers can show a much better record than Victorian teachers. University teaching is, by means of the colleges above mentioned, disseminated through the colony, and as lectures are held in the evening, there is every facility for teachers to study for University degrees. Again, there is in New Zealand no public-service system of classification of teachers, and, as a consequence, a clever ambitious young man may rise rapidly by securing coveted advertised appointments, either under his own Education Board or under other Boards, or he may elect to seek appointment in a secondary school. As a matter of fact, a large number of the masters of secondary schools have received their training in the primary schools. There is thus a widespread opportunity for self-culture among the teachers, and a very great inducement to take advantage of it. The New Zealand system certainly lends itself to the rapid advancement of the talented and enthusiastic, and I observed that a large number of the prizes of the teaching service—the headmasterships of important schools, and the inspectorships—were m the hands of comparatively young men. The New Zealand system of training teachers must, therefore, not be judged solely by the work of the normal schools at Christchurch and Dunedin. It is the intention of the Government to found training colleges in the four large -cities of the colony, and when that is done an attempt will be made to realise the worthy ideal laid down by the Inspector-General — Such training they can receive only at properly equipped training colleges, to which shall be admitted not merely a small fraction of the future staffs of the schools, but as nearly as possible all individuals who are destined to take part in the management of our schools, primary and secondary alike. In my recommendations in the annual report, 1902, I dealt fully with the pupil-teacher system and its faults, and I outlined a practicable scheme of training for Victoria. Its main details were— (1.) The establishment of a secondary-school course for future junior teachers (pupil-teachers). In the junior training colleges proposed, the ideal should be to give a good foundation of scholarship, together with an insight into elementary facts about practical teaching. (2.) A period devoted to practical teaching in schools as " pupil " or junior teachers. The ideal of this period should be to give power to manage a class, and ability to develop subjects and courses of lessons. (3.) A course in the senior or University Training College. Here, in addition to general culture, the ideal should be to give a broad grasp of educational principles. Victoria has one efficient aid to training in the existing Training College at the University, but the preparatory work rests upon a very faulty pupil-teacher system, which should be radically changed. With the establishment of the 'new training colleges New Zealand should be m a very enviable position The admirable system of secondary schools with the concession of free " places "to every child who passes the Sixth" Standard by the age of fourteen years makes the higher education of the pupil-teachers easy of attainment. The staffing of New Zealand schools allows the pupil-teacher system fair play, and gives the pupil-teacher a chance of skilled direction by an assistant. The training colleges and the University colleges, so far as they train teachers, will thus rest on a sure foundation of scholarship and skill in teaching. If, as set out in the departmental report, training is insisted upon from " all individuals who are destined to take part in the management of schools, primary and secondary alike " then New Zealand will have shown the way to the Australian States m making true education possible for it is not possible in a community which is content to employ large numbers of untrained workers'in such delicate, difficult, and momentous work. When will Victoria grapple with this problem in real earnest % Higher Primary and Secondary Education. One leading difference between the education systems of New Zealand and Victoria is in the provision made by New Zealand for higher primary and secondary education. In Victoria the State system controlled by 'the Education Department deals with primary education only, all the higher work is left to private enterprise. As a result, many important centres of population have no establishment worthy of the name of a secondary school, or even of a higher primary school, and therefore higher education is possible only to the children of parents who can afford to send them to boarding-schools. Ihere exist no agencies for training teachers other than State-school teachers, and the trained State-school teacher is a public servant with security of tenure, so that the system of exchange of teachers between primary and secondary schools which obtains in New Zealand is unknown in Victoria. That widespread inefficiency should result from the absence of trained teachers might be expected. There is, however, no adequate supervision or examination test, so that the work of private schools is left to conjecture.