EDUCATIONAL PROPOSALS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 87, 12 April 1922, Page 4

EDUCATIONAL PROPOSALS.

The proposed changes in our education system that were discussed the , other day by the Minister and a conference of educationists are not new ideas, but have boen openly before the public for at leaft two years, consequently the. department cannot be accused of undue haste in this important mutter. It in indeed one in which a move should be made only after the fullest discussion and most careful con- ! sideration. The present system of coordination between primary schools on the one hand and secondary and tech- | nira.l schools on tho other has been under lire for years past. It is generally admitted, we believe, that there is not enough co-ordination; that secondary education has suffered through being treated rather as a water-tight i compartment than as a limb of a living organism. Then there is a strong and i widespread feeling that a large proportion of the pupils who pas* on to secondary schools get little benefit from the instruction, and in many cases are diverted from callings for which they would be suited. A plan was therefoTt- framed by which the primary school age would be shortened, and an intermediate layer of education would be introduced between the primary and the secondary school proper. Leading educational opinion in England and elsewhere has for <.ome time favoured a shortening of the primary school j period, so that pupils would pass out at | the a<je of twelve, and it. is proposed to ] adopt, this in New Zealand. According! to the scheme that is now to be tested j in an experimental way, the pupil would go from the primary school to ;i junior high school, where he would have a choice of courses, and would be jrukled in his choice by the result of a consultation between hie parent, his primary school teachers, nnd the inspector. The object, U to provide pupils with an education thai, will he partly vocational, and to try to set them at an early age on the road to the calling for Which they are best suited. This is an excellent idea up 10 tl point. Wo are, however, by no means eiifhiiniastic about the idea of early vocational training. Can it be said of most boys that at the age of twelve they have given a good indication of what they are fitted for in life? The idea of providing "industrial." "eommercia-r and "agricultural" courses in the new intermediate junior high school period, may prove to be a valuable inprovement to our system, by checking the disposition among boys to fteek ■•genteel" jobs for which they are not fitted. We hope, however, "that in these courses the greater value o! the cultural side of education will not bo lost eight of; it i cannot be too strongly emphasised that' tho end of education is not to mak« clerks, or lawyers, or farmers, or plumbers, or drcsan>akers, but to make good intelligent and cultivated citizens. Seeing that it is recommended that "in general about three-fifths of the junior high school course should be common to all pupils."' and that this portion is to include English, oivice and history, the point we mention has not been overlooked by the conference. But what is going to be the effect, of this junior high" school system on the secondary J fchoole? The idea is that the pupil shall take t/hree years at a junior high school and then three years at a secondary school. It many cases, however, he or she will consider education to be completed at the end of the first three years, or will spend only one year at a secondary school. Tlie result will be to weaken considerably the influence of the secondary schools. ' They will have their pupils for a shorter period, and consequently will not. be able to stamp on them so effectively tlie impress of the eehool community and it« tradition?. IWe regard this us -i serious drawback Ito the proposed scheme. It is signillcniit ! that four members of the conference lu-ld the view that the junior -choul should not be an institution distinct from the secondary school, and we fancy that when the scheme comes to he considered by secondary school teachers, this attitude will ho widely and t>trnng]y I endorsed. For the rest we believe the I conference has done wisely to recommend the establishment of experimental junior high schools, so that en important change may be tested by results, before the system' of education throughout tinDominion is subjected to such a disturbing and so cortly a reorganisation.