SUPPLEMENT TO

THE TABLET ; A W eek ly R eco rd o f E c c le s ia s t ic a l News.

L ondon, S e p t e m b e r 27, 1890.

9

NEWS FROM TH E SCHOOLS.

Education in South Australia. The following very interesting article is a reprint from The Times of Thursday :

A t a time like the present, when the very fundamentals o f the English educational system are about to be changed, and when, with the apparent consent o f all parties in the State, some form o f free or (as Lord Salisbury prefers to call it) assisted education is soon to supplant or largely to modify the fee-paying principle which has so long prevailed in this country, it is important that the mind o f the public should be well informed not only as to the supposed need which the promised measure is intended to meet, but also as to the characteristic features and the published results o f the educational systems of other English-speaking lands, so far, that is, as those systems may be found to supply hints for the improvement of our own. From this point o f view the South Australian system will be found to be instructive.

In this colony, with an estimated population of about 320,000 people, there has been a steady growth in the past 10 years in the amount o f school accommodation, the number o f schools having increased by nearly 50 per cent., and having reached at the close of 1889 the gross total o f 540. These are described as o f two kinds, public and provisional; and the teaching staff employed in them— composed, as in England, o f head teachers, assistants, pupil teachers, and monitors— numbered at Christmas last 1,076 in all, or as near as may be an average o f two for each school. A goodly proportion o f the schools have been built by loan, and many more have been improved by public money ; but it will be news to some people to be told that over a third o f the whole number o f school buildings are still not the property of the Department. The whole amount o f the loan is large, exceeding 24s. ahead of the gross population (against 17s., the corresponding figure in England and Wales) ; and the whole cost of maintenance (nearly four-fifths o f which is borne directly by the State) works out to over ,£3 15s. a head in average attendance (,£1 19s. 6}¿d. in England).

The attendance is compulsory under the management of some 80 so-called boards o f advice, whose duties appear to extend to a general oversight of the buildings, the staff, the instruction, the results, the remission o f fees as well as o f the attendance. Although under the compulsory powers there has been some improvement in the matter o f regularity since 1880, there has been actually a slight falling-off in the past two years ; and whilst in England the average attendance at elementary schools is just one in eight of the population, the corresponding figure in South Australia is one in 11. No doubt part o f this disparity is due to the comparatively meagre attendance o f children below seven, amounting to no more than 14 per cent, of the whole, against over 31 per cent, in England. Moreover, there is some unknown number o f children in daily attendance at private schools in the colony. On the other hand, as a whole, children remain at school to a greater age in South Australia than in England, for whereas in England only about four in 100 are found at school after reaching 13 years o f age, in South Australia the corresponding number is 10 in 100. Practically all the children remain on till 14, whereas in England, according to the report just published, out o f every 24 children presented in Standard IV., and presumably o f 10 years o f age, nine disáppear immediately after the examination, eight more at the end o f one year, and five at the end o f two years, leaving only two to go on in the seventh Standard.

But what about school fees? Here the example o f South Australia is very instructive. The rule o f the colony is to charge fees, and, indeed, somewhat high fees, in all cases in which the parents do not declare their inability to find the money ; and it may be pointed out in passing that the fees actually paid last year by the parents amount to over 17s. a head in average attendance (against n s . 1¡4 d. for all Voluntary schools, and 8s. 11 )£d. for all Board schools in England). But whilst these high fees are paid by the less impoverished o f the people in

South Australia, it is to be noted that the State provides the fees for about a fifth of the children attending school, although the report puts it as a “ gratifying ” fact that the number o f free scholars had declined by nearly a sixth in the previous year. The reports o f the various boards o f advice give some indication of the set o f public opinion on the question o f fees In very many instances it is made evident that the board o f advice is distinctly opposed to any lengthening out o f therfree list, and again and again the remark is made that the temporary increase in a particular district is due to some depression in work and wages, which it is hoped in another year will be remedied. In one case a board takes credit to itself for having reduced the free list by fully 12 per cent., whilst still “ fairly w e l l” maintaining the average attendance. It must, however, be admitted that in some cases boards o f advice are speaking out very strongly in favour o f the abolition of fees on the ground that the payment presses very hardly in certain cases. One board maintains that “ if education is compulsory it should be free ; ” another, that “ nothing short o f compulsory and free education will enable the Department to cope satisfactorily with the lethargy exhibited by many parents a third, whilst somewhat limiting its demands, is very emphatic : ■ “ the board are unanimously o f opinion that the education system should be altered, making it compulsory and free up to a standard popularly known as the ‘ three R :s and it goes out o f its way to keep all the public money for “ public and provisional ” schools by specially declaring that to make grants to private schools (of which there appear to be a very large number, exceeding 360, carried on entirely by voluntary effort) “ would be pernicious ; ” and the other board somewhat effusively reports that “ the day will be one o f rejoicing when the Government consider the colony in a position not only to allow free education throughout South Australia to form part o f their policy, but to be prepared to give effect to it.” It is a disappointing circumstance that no statistics are available to show whether the “ free” scholars in the colony attend as regularly as the others.

It is pretty clear that the curriculum adopted in South Australia is both full and rational. The reading is to be taught upon the only true principles— those o f making the sense understood and of causing a pattern set to be imitated. Additional reading books, too, are used to impart variety and interest to the exercise. The results, which are gauged under the separate heads o f general accuracy and expression, appear to be, on the whole, satisfactory. Spelling is taught through the practice o f frequent transcription from print as well as from dictation, and a certain amount o f learning by heart. The dictation is said not to be strong. The syllabus o f arithmetic is specially well and scientifically drawn up. Concrete quantities come at the very earliest stages o f the teaching, and whilst large numbers are postponed to a much later stage than in England, much more variety is secured from the very first. In the higher standards, too, the aim is to teach what is practical rather than a set of formal rules ; mensuration, household accounts, invoices, cricket averages, &c., all entering into the curriculum. Mental arithmetic, too, is systematically taught as a preparation for slate arithmetic ; it is also regularly examined and separately reported on. It is to be regretted that the results show a low average in this subject. Happily a good geography syllabus is accompanied with good results in most of the inspection districts. Drawing is compulsory, and seems to be making fair progress, although only begun two years ago. Science is also compulsory ; but the same difficulty besets its teaching in South Australia as in this country— the teachers themselves need to be tau gh t ; when, however, it is known that the course o f study at the Training College (under the management of its experienced and highly successful Principal, Mr. L. G. Madley) is limited to a single year, it would be unreasonable to expect more to be done in so exceedingly short a time. One thing South Australian inspectors do which is hardly more than attempted in this country— they pay “ surprise” visits to their schools in the fourth month o f the school year, and thus learn not only how the work is progressing for the year, but also what is the character o f the ordinary every-day work in the school, and consequently something, too, o f the true character of the eacher