116 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



difficulty of properly educating puj)il-teachers in voluntary 

 schools would be diminished." 



What, then, is done by the Education Department of New 

 Zealand, and the educational authorities of Auckland in parti- 

 cular, for the training of teachers? The department holds 

 two examinations annually for Classes E and D, and grants 

 certificates of competency to successful candidates ; it recog- 

 nises the University degree by creating for it the three higher 

 grades — C, B, A ; it also recognises the matriculation exami- 

 nation and the Junior and Senior Civil Service examinations, 

 and makes certain concessions in favour of those wdio have 

 passed these tests ; it has framed certain regulations concern- 

 ing the employment and training of pupil-teachers ; lastly, it 

 lias made regulations respecting normal schools. Subject to 

 the general provisions of the Education Act and to the regu- 

 lations of the department, the Education Boards have done 

 what they could to keep up the supply of qualified teachers. 



A number of young people are taken on year by year ; 

 after a brief period of probation and on the favourable report 

 of a head teacher they are indentured as pupil-teachers, 

 appointed to some school, and generally put in charge of 

 standards. They are required to work five hours daily in 

 school, and are entitled to receive, out of school-hours, five 

 hours' instruction per week from head teachers or their 

 deputies. They are examined annually, and are expected to 

 present themselves as soon as possible for examination in 

 Class E or D. This, I think, is all that is done to aid them 

 by the educational powers that be. 



The fact that their qualifications, as shown by examina- 

 tion and Inspectors' marks, are rising, only proves capacity 

 and desire for improvement on the part of the teachers them- 

 selves. To get through the different grades they must have- 

 recourse to outside help. 



The objections to a scheme of this kind are obvious and 

 weighty. Young people, from fifteen to seventeen years of 

 age, whose training is avowedly nil or very incomplete, whose 

 stock of knowledge is very meagre, are put to teach — the 

 very work for which they are least fitted. As our schools 

 are staffed and organized it is impossible for head teachers to 

 exercise any adequate and effective supervision over the teach- 

 ing of their junior subordinates. The system, if such it can 

 be called, is unfair alike to the young teacher and to the 

 scholar. It is indefensible except on the ground of want of 

 means. It has been tried elsewhere under favourable circum- 

 stances and deliberately rejected. This being so, it would be 

 surely well for us to take advantage of the experience of others 

 and avoid repeating educational blunders. 



With respect to the general education of the teacher, the 



