780 



PROCEEDIXGS OF SECTION J. 



men engaged in the various forms of intellectual M^ork in which 

 education tells. By this means they will gain a width of sympathy 

 and foi-ce of character which will enable them better to win the 

 respect and sympathy of their pupils and of the public. The 

 segregation of the future schoolmaster into special pupil-teacher 

 schools, or into isolated training colleges, is to be avoided, if under 

 more liberalising conditions, such as the seconclaiy schools and the 

 imiversity afford, the special requirements for his professional train- 

 ing can also be adequately provided. 



The work actually done towards the professional training of 

 teachers in English and Australasian universities is at present 

 small. Oxford and Cambridge still do little or nothing in this 

 direction, but the new universities at Leeds, Liverpool, Birmingham, 

 Sheffield, Durham, and Manchester all provide instruction in the 

 theory and practice of teaching for students intending to become 

 teachers in secondary schools, and also have established in close 

 connection with them training colleges for the completion of the 

 personal education and the professional instruction of those pupil- 

 teachers who have finished their four years' apprentice-work. Still 

 this university ti-aining of primary teachers is gained by comparatively 

 few. In 1907, w^hereas 4,000 boys and 17,000 girls presented them- 

 selves for the closing pupil-teacher's examination, only 178 men and 

 156 women from the training colleges in all the new universities 

 presented themselves for an examination leading to a degree. Still 

 this little leaven will spread its influence, and the numbers are steadily 

 increasing. 



The connection between the universities of Melbourne and Sydney 

 and the primary school teachers has been very insignificant ; but in 

 New South Wales, since the publication of Messrs. Knibbs and 

 Turner's masterly report on education, there are evident signs of 

 improvement. In South Australia the condition of affairs is much 

 more satisfactory. Pupil- teachers, after two years' study in pupil- 

 teachers' central school, and two years more spent in practical 

 teaching, are admitted to the university training college for two 

 more years, the State' granting maintenance allowance. In New 

 Zealand all the pupil-teachers, on completing their period of service, 

 are brought into the four State training colleges situated in the four 

 university centres, 'where their work is continued in the closes.t 

 possible connection with the university. New Zealand spent £30,000 

 last year upon this work of the complete education of her primary 

 teachers. Little has been done in Australian universities hitherto 

 for the professional training of secondary teachers, but this university 

 training of primary teachers will produce a supply of masters well 

 fitted to take secondary school work, and other university men 

 seeking employment in secondary schools will, in face of this com- 

 petition, find it necessary to qualify themselves more fully by a 

 course of systematic training in educational methods. The complete 

 nature of the university training demanded of the secondaiy school 

 teacher in Germany necessitates the postponement of wage-earning 

 until at least the age of 24, this would prevent its adoption here, for 

 the present, in view of the more lucrative and more attractive em- 

 ployment obtainable in other callings. 



