MR. MORLEY ON THE TEACHERS OF PRIMARY SCHOOLS.
' [TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPEOTATOR.1
Sut,—It is very unfair of Mr. Morley to say that the teachers of our primary schools are utterly bad because they have not -done what they have never had the opportunity of doing. We are set down as being utterly bad because we do not pass many -children in the Upper Standards ; allow me to say no teachers, whether they belong to the Denominational system, the School- Board system, or any other system, can pass children in the upper standards till either compulsion or something else forces children -to be kept at school till they reach the upper standards. We lose many of our scholars before they even pus the 3rd Standard. Take ray own case. I have a large Denominational school of 300 boys ; of these 226 are below the 3rd Standard, 40 are in the 3rd Standard, -24 are in Standard IV., 8 in Standard V., and only 2 in Standard VI. At my last inspection all my scholars in Standards III., IV., V., and VI. passed in every subject ; only two of them were in Standard VI. Will Mr. Morley say I am an "utterly bad" teacher, because although 100 per cent. of the children I bad above Standard II. passed, yet only -6 per cent. of my whole school passed Standard VI.? I believe the same -amount of time, skill, and labour necessary for teaching the 2 pupils might easily have been made available for teaching a class of 20 or 30 pupils; in other words, if I am sufficiently skilful to yam 2 pupils, with a little more care and attention I believe I could easily pass 30 pupils, if something could be done to make 30 pupils instead of only 2 stay at school till they reach Standard VL Schoolmasters would be very glad indeed if compulsion were en- 'forced. If Mr. Morley knows anything about teaching a primary school, he will agree with me when I say schoolmasters would much prefer to devote more of their energy to the work of the upper standards, instead of having to give, as at present, the greater part of their energy to the dry elementary work of the lower istariflards. Instead of unjustly blaming the Denominational system, let Mr. Morley admit the two conditions named by Mr. Forster, and let us have compulsion at once. In a few years be will find that the very teachers he blamed for doing so little will pro- duce results which will earn for them, even from him, a bettor character than he gives them now.—I am, Sir, &c.,
A CERTIFICATED ELEMENTARY TEACHER.
Previous page
