The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News,Morning News and The Echo. FRIDAY. DECEMBER 20, 1912. THE FREE-PLACE SYSTEM.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 304, 20 December 1912, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

FRIDAY. DECEMBER 20, 1912. THE FREE-PLACE SYSTEM.

i For the cause that lacks assistance, j For the tcrong that needs resistance, For the, future in the distance, ! And the good that zee can do.

I At the Grammar School prize distrihu- j tion last night, the Principal, in his report, made some comments upon the Free Place system, which seem to us to deserve very serious attention. Mr. Ti-bs, as our readers will hardly require to be reminded, is a very successful teacher, with wide experience of educational methods and results in this country: and when a headmaster of his standI ing condemns the Free Place system so un- ' j reservedly, the general public may take ;it for granted that there is something j seriously wrong with it. The idea of the Free Place system of course is that I every boy who, being under 15 years old, has obtained a '"proficiency certifiI cate" in the primary schools, is fit to i start work at a secondary school, and I should get free tuition there. Unfortunately Mr. Ti_bs' experience has con- j ■ vinced him that the majority of the I "free place" scholars are really not in a position, educationally speaking, to pro- | fit by the work that they are expected to | undertake. The results of the entrance i examinations held annually at the Gram- j jmnr School, and the work done subse- ; qucntiy by the pupils, have proved to j him that "a number of certificated senior ' boys leave the primary of our system without accurate knowledge in i any single subject, and without the habit iof application and concentration which ' might help them to make up for past neglect by closer study in the two or three 'years of boyhood that remain to them."' ! This, our readers will admit, is a very j grave indictment, considering the source from which it comes-, and, unfortunately, there is a great deal of corroborative evidence of this kind forthcoming elsewhere. A week ago the acting-principal of the Wellington Boys' College, in his I annual report, created something of a sensation by condemning the "Free Place" system quite as strongly as Mr. Tibbs; and his statement- have been confirmed by many experienced secondary school teachers elsewhere. Mr. Heine, who has had 30 years of secondary school work in this country, admits that the object of the "Free Place*' system is a. laudable one. and he considers that so ! far as tbe abler pupils are concerned, it has served its purpose well. But he ' holds that in regard to the pupils of I average capacity it has failed, for two reasons— { 1) the present standards of proficiency are two low; |2) there is in the primary schools a general tendency ito igjiore what used to be regarded aa . the "fundamentals'* of a liberal educai lion, and more especially to neglect the . teaching of English, on which, in his I opinion, the study of all languages and j literatures must be based. A large , amount of controversy has centred round , these charges in Wellington and Christ- . church; but Mr. Heine found a great many recognised edncation|al authorities to support him. 'In particular, we may qnote from a i very effective letter addressed to the j "Evening Post" by Mr. F. M Eenner, a well-known University graduate and l secondary school teacher, now on the , Wellington College staff; Mr. -tenner i states _oldly that out of some ISO "free"" I pupils who enter Wellington College | every year, at least SO are unfit to take ;up secondary school work. The average j "free place" boy—that is the ordinary fifth and sixth standard public school j boy here^—cannot speak or pronou_ee : his own language correctly, he cannot | "write his sentences grammatically, or .analyse them when they are written. j The knowledge of English history, proceeds Mr. B-enneT. displayed by "free : place*' boys is ludicrous. Geography is usually a little better than history, but j nearly always unintelligent and i_a_euj rate. Arithmetic is wide in range, but |in neatness, intelligence, and correctness of detail, it is not so good as it was 1 even ten years ago. And the worst of 1 the story 5s that large numbers of the 1 boys thus inadequately equipped leave the secondary schools after a twelve i months' sojourn, without having had a i : fair chance of repairing the defects of . their training or getting any substantial \ i benefit out of thei*- stay there.

This last point—the practical useless- | ness of a few months' work at a secondary school to an untrained primary school pupil—has be__ strongly emphasised by other educational experts in the South, notably by Mr S. Foster, of North Canterbury, one of the most experienced primary school teachers and school inspectors in the Dominion. And, on the whole, even if the majority of our secondary school teachers might not be inclined to go so far as Mr. Heine or Mr. Renner in their condemnation of the Free Place system, there seems to be ample evidence to justify the contention that the primary school training of the present day is a very ineffective kind of preparation for secondary school work. In our opinion, this is due to the mistaken policy that has been pursued for years past in our primary schools, and more especially since the new syllabus came into force. The energies and in- I terests of the children, it seems to us,"; are dissipated over too wide a field, their i attention is diverted from what should : be the basic features of a sound education, and the really important and funda- I mental elements in intellectual equipment , and training are sacrificed to superfluous . ' accessories of relatively small materia] or educational value. This we regard as proven positively by the experience of j the leading primary and secondary j school teachers throughout the Dominion. | As to the experiment of offering free | education at secondary schools to chil- j dren thus trained, we never expected | that it could be a success. Our own \ conviction is that the country would j have been far better off if the secondary ; I schools had been left to their original : duty of preparing for a university ' course pupils who wished to enter the ! learned professions. For such work j majority of primary school pupils are : not intended: and we hold that tneir | '">*» rests would have been far bei'c 1 " 'served by establishing for the averig' | boy. intending to take up some form of trade or industry, free continuation ! schools, where technical ani industri'l training couid be provided in accordance with his needs. The present system has compelled the .eeondary schools . largely to reconstruct th»r methods without any corresponding advantage :o their pupils or themselves But. in , any case, it seems to us that no boy j lor girl, however intelligent, can be get- I ting the utmost possible benefit out of j our education system while the primary * schools follow existing meth'ius. and in obedience to the demands of ihi present i .-;> l'abus impose a large amount of' desultory, superficial and inconclusive j work upon the pupils, while neglecting,; lo a very large extent, what used to b- | regarded as the fundamental portion oi J a genuine, all-round education. i I