Jan. 10.] THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 9

Education Act, 1914.—Amended Regulations.

CHARLES FERGUSSON, Governor-General.

ORDER IN COUNCIL.

At the Government House at Wellington, this 30th day of November, 1928.

Present:

HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL IN COUNCIL.

IN pursuance and exercise of the powers conferred upon him by the Education Act, 1914, and the amendments of that Act, and of all other powers enabling him in this behalf, His Excellency the Governor-General of the Dominion of New Zealand, acting by and with the advice and consent of the Executive Council of the said Dominion, doth hereby amend, in the manner set forth in the Schedule hereto, the regulations at present in force relating to the organization, examination, and inspection of public schools and the syllabus of instruction, and, with the like advice and consent, doth prescribe that this Order shall come into force on the first day of February, one thousand nine hundred and twenty-nine.

SCHEDULE.

THE regulations relating to the organization, examination, and inspection of public schools, and the syllabus of instruction made by Order in Council dated 15th September, 1919, and amended by Orders in Council dated 13th June, 1921; 25th March, 1922; 10th September, 1923; 3rd December, 1923; and 12th December, 1924, are hereby further amended by deleting clauses 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, and 25, and substituting the following therefor:—

SYLLABUS OF INSTRUCTION.

The courses of instruction in the various subjects shall be as follows:—

GENERAL INTRODUCTION.

The last complete revision of the syllabus for primary schools was made in 1919, but since then very marked changes have taken place in educational thought with respect to school organization and curricula. The present revision has been undertaken with the view of modernizing both the prescriptions of work in each subject and the methods of instruction.

The Department particularly desires that the present syllabus shall be regarded both by Inspectors and teachers as mainly suggestive. Teachers are to consider themselves free to make any alteration or rearrangement of work they think desirable, and the Inspectors will approve any reasonable scheme that appears to meet the needs of children of a particular type or of a particular locality. It is not necessary that the teacher should follow the order of instruction adopted in the syllabus. As a matter of fact the topics set down under each subject have not been arranged according to any hard-and-fast rule, and part of the duty of the teacher will be to select and rearrange the material in accordance with his own ideas as to the best method of treating the subject. He is also at liberty to transfer parts of a subject from one class to another, always provided that the requirements for the primary-school leaving-certificate, awarded at the end of the Standard VI or Form II course are complied with. Further, the teacher may with the approval of the Inspector base his instruction mainly on one subject to which all or most of the other subjects are related. It is recognized also that the pupil as well as his teacher has a right to a certain measure of freedom, and that the most carefully planned schemes of work may not satisfy the pupil’s desire to pursue a course of study that appeals to him. The Inspector will recognize that it is not always possible for a teacher to adhere closely to his daily plan of work. At the same time nothing can excuse neglect on the teacher’s part of adequate preparation of his scheme of instruction. It is most important that the teacher shall use his freedom wisely and that he shall not allow the instruction of the pupil to degenerate into an unsystematic dabbling with only the more interesting subjects or parts of subjects.

An attempt has been made to make the syllabus much more definite than its predecessor, so that the young teacher will receive more real help from a perusal of its contents. This effort to avoid vagueness may give the syllabus an appearance of being overloaded, but a careful examination of the various prescriptions will show how much the amount of work expected from the teacher and the pupils has been reduced or simplified. This is particularly the case with arithmetic.

B