Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, APRIL 23, 1928. EDUCATION IN BRITAIN.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 48, Issue 164, 23 April 1928, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, APRIL 23, 1928. EDUCATION IN BRITAIN.

In view of the meetings of householders this evening it is of interest to note that important proposals for the improvement of the education system have been considered in Britain recently. Two conferences were held in England —one at London and the other at Scarborough with a third at Ayr, where Scottish teachers assembled. At all three there was abundant proof of intensive and detailed preparations in anticipation of a forward move when the economic position of the country improves sufficiently to warrant action. According to these plans there will be an extension of school activities' at both ends of the system. In the large cities infants below the age of ordinary school attendance who are now compelled to spend their days in the gutters and alleys will be led into the sunshine and the gardens and the open-air classrooms of the nursery schools. At the other end of the" scale the leaving age will be raised so that it will not be possible for hoys and girls at the tender age of 14 to be plunged as they are to-day, into the vicissitudes of competitive industry, only partially equipped for either their work or their leisure, and sometimes even without prospects of employment. Bide by side with these important proposals, is the idea, that is gaining’ considerable ground, that there should be a diversification in the studies pursued in the later school years, so that the .different abilities, the inclinations and possible careers of the pupils may be provided for in a variety of ways. While on the one hand the tendency to link up the schools with industry, commerce and the professions is gaining ground, an equally strong tendency exists in the direction of a strengthening of the aesthetic, artistic and cultural side of education. Both the earning capacity and the appreciative capacity of the pupils will thus he developed; and from such a combination will spring a heightening of interest in the finer and nobler aspects of things, based on the necessary foundation of enhanced material efficiency. As regards the teaching staffs, the desirability of a- higher academic standing is becoming more widely accepted. The Scottish teachers, who inherit a national tradition as to the value of education, have adopted as their ideal a university degree for every teacher, the attainment of which would lift the profession to a higher place in public respect. But the holding of a degree must accompany a natural ability for instructing the young, who during their schooldays acquire a great deal more than actual hook learning, as it is termed.