EDUCATION POLICY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 263, 19 August 1936, Page 6

EDUCATION POLICY.

QUESTION OF KINDERGARTEN.

THE MINISTER’S DESIRE. (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, August 18. “I am anxious to know how in a practical way we can extend kindergarten education,” said) the Minister for Education (the Hon. P. Fraser), at the opening of the biennial conference of the New Zealand Free Kindergarten Union to-day. Welcoming the debgates and speakers, Mrs J. A. Doctor, president of the Wellington Fx-ee Kindergarten Associatin', had said that they were full of hope and good cheer because the Government had given them back all they used to have before the depi*ession, and she expected the Minister would tell them of the Government’s plans. Mr Fraser replied that, on the contrary, he was present mox-e to ask what tho union proposed to do. < “I am speaking seriously when I say that the time has arrived when I must take some infoi-mation, knowledge, and a lead out of your experience in the past,” said Mr Fraser. “I am very pleased it was possible for the Government to restore the kixxdergarten grants back to what they were previously. While we are all grateful for that, and I am happy to be the medium for it, with the permission of the Minister for Finance and the Government, that is not enough, because the organisation must increase, expand, and improve, and the problem is in what direction and how far can the organisation meet the needs of the children. I know what you have aimed at in the past and how well you have carried it out. llie point is, what is the scope of your ideas in the future ? I want to he in a position to judge how far your oi-ganisation can carry the work out and whether, as at present constituted, it can carry it out.” There were many problems, said Mr Fraser. He gave, as an instance, the extension of the benefits of the kindergarten to country childi-en and to children in country villages where the population was insufficient to warrant the establishment of schools but where classes could, be conducted. He asked whether his audience had considered such problems and how far they had considered them. He would respect the opinions of those who had done the work in the past. Out of that reservoir of experience he would naturally expect valuable guidance. He did not pledge the Government to accept all of the conference’s opinions, but their suggestions would receive sympathetic consideration. Many of the problems were more difficult than that of securing money which, however difficult, was a tangible problem.