SECONDARY EDUCATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 177, 28 July 1926, Page 14

SECONDARY EDUCATION.

» ■ ACCOMMODATION QUESTION. THE MINISTER'S INTERVIEW. MR. W. J. JORDAN'S RETORT. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON", Tuesday. Members of the Opposition attacked the Minister of Education in the House to-night for having given an interview concerning the alleged anomalies, or hardships, in connection with, the education system. Mr. W. J. Jordan (Manukau) said the Minister had suggested that before criticising a member should make sure of his facts, but the Minister had himself admitted that anomalies existed. The Department hart no information that any free place children in Auckland had failed to get entrance to any postprimary school, yet he should' have known that the .Seddon Technical College was so overcrowded that the principal reported in 192.1 that 70 more pupils could have been taken had accommodation been available. A representative of the Auckland "Star" interviewed the principal, when the speaker raised this subject in Parliament, and secured a statement that between 10(1 and 150 applications hart to be refused. ( The principal had to use a type-dupli-cated form of letter to inform free place pupils that their application for admission had been refused. It was tlie duty of the Government to give these children what they had won by examination. Tlie Minister had either made a false statement or else would be open to tlie charge that children of working parents were being kept out. Training Reduced to Farce. The member for Manukau also wanted to know why the Technical College had sold the plot of ground and closed down the building that had been devoted to ! teaching agricultural subjects. Agriculture was now being taught in a schoolroom, which was absurd. It meant that technical school training was being reduced to a farce, either by the administration of the Department or by the peculiar tactics of the principal. Mr. J. A. Lee -(Auckland East) supported Mr. Jordan, stating that there was no doubt that hundreds of children had 'been refused admission on free places. Minister in Defence. In replying, the Hon. R. A. Wright added little or nothing to his statements made in the interview published in the "Star" of Saturday last. He reaffirmed all that he had then stated, and said that he did not deny that there may have been overcrowding, but the Department had no information of any free place pupil 'being unable to obtain admiasion to any post-primary school in Auckland. He had said that none had been refused admission at the Grammar Schools, but did not say- that none had been refused at the Technical School. In stating that there was ample room at the Technical School, Le had quali-' fled his remarks by stating that a large number of pupils taking a matriculation course, or a commercial course, at the Technical School, could have attended one of the grammar schools for the same course, if there was not room for them at the Technical School. The Minister said he had not intended to reflect on Mr. Jordan in any way. Mr. M. J. Savage (Auckland West) later asserted that the Minister had not answered Mr. Jordan's challenge at all as the member for Manukau had put up an unanswerable case.