KOWHAI SCHOOL.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 138, 13 June 1922, Page 2

KOWHAI SCHOOL.

■ ■■ ■' ■■-. -__-~—-_. CONSIDERED BY MINISTER. TO BE GREATEST ADVANCE. IX DOMINION'S EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT. In the course of an interview this morning the Minister of Education (Hon. ('. .1. Parr) stated that he bcliived the new Kowhai Junior High (School to be the liegitiiiing of the greatest advance yet made in the Dominion's educational development. A XEW DEPARTURE. ; ''It is the forerunner of hundreds of | similar schools that will eventually ! conic. It is not new elsewhere. Already j schools on the same lines have come in Scotland, in Wales, in London. United States, Canada, and Australia." said the I Minister. "Mr. Caughley's explanation j • last week to the residents put the a ms !of the new school very clearly. \\ c , I propose to gather up the children at j I about the age of I' 2in the fourth and | \ fifth standards from the Mount Albert | 'School, the Edendale School, and the i Mount Eden School, and give them j 'together a new course of instruction | ; from 12 to 13 years of age. The prac- ] jtical aptitude of the pupils will be j Icspcciallv catered for in woodwork and , i shop courses, while a sound education | iin English and in cultural subjects j | will occupy three-fifths' of the time. 1 Forty per cent of boys and girls in this | country do not reach the sixth -*tanjdard. * These boys and girls are really mot dull, though" supposed to be. but 'have a different mentality from the so- | called 'clever' children. We have mnde ithe mistake of trying to cast them in jthe same mould with the others. The j junior high school will largely cure tins 'defect in our educational system. This j | type will get a course which suits it j better. The boy who desires a profes- I sion, the university, a businew course, | or an industrial course, will have the necessary academic teaching, with tins -rreat advantage, that it will begin at The proper age, viz.. about 12 years of a s e instead of about 14 or 15. as it frequently does to-day in the ordinary high schools." A NEW OUTLOOK. i The Kowhai Street intermediate school j is ooin" to give a new outlook to education in the Mount Eden district, and the parents and boys are to be congratulated ■on being the fir-it to enjoy the new [svstera. he continued. "Altogether 002 pupils of the fourth and fifth standards | in these three large schools have inti- j | mated their desire to come at once to the new shool. This shows now just how 'keen is the public interest." OVERCROWD! KG RELIEVED. ''The Education Board and the Department are busy preparing the necessary staff and machinery,"' concluded Mr. Parr. "So soon as the new school gets Koinjr, the present overcrowding at Blount Eden and Mount Albert and Edendale will be immediately relieved, and there will be more tban 12 square feet per pupil for each child in the three schools. Indeed, there will be over 21X1 vacant places in these three schools. I am glad that the parents have shown a ! spirit of appreciation, as their district will be the first in Xew Zealand to reap the. .benefits of a rational and modern system."