NEW EDUCATION POLICY:

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 246, 17 October 1929, Page 11

NEW EDUCATION POLICY:

"DECAPITATING" SCHOOLS,

WELLINGTON HOSTILE, "LET THEM EXPERIMENT ELSEWHERE." (8.7 Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, this day. A letter which the chairman said contained proposals for "'very radical changes in the. educational policy of the country" was discussed at length by the Wellington Education Board yesterday. The Director of Education suggested in the letter taat the erection of the proposed primary school at Rongotai should be delayed for at least another year. '"The Rongotai High School," he said, "at present consists of ten classrooms and a laboratory, and seven new classrooms are in course of erection. This will complete the front of the building. "The principal of the Rongotai High School considers that 177 boys will return next year for certain and 49 others will in all probability return, say, a total of 207. Standard VI. boys from Lyall Bay and Muritai will add another SO, and proficiency pupils from Kilbirnie, Hataitai, Mirimar Central, Worser Bay and Seatoun will mean 52 more, a total of 330. "In Forms I. and 11., 40 can be taken in a class, but above that 23 is regarded as sufficient. There will therefore, be a certain amount of room available, and :t is proposed to take Standard V. boys a≤ well as Standard VI. boys from Lyall Bay and Miramar South, making this school a complete junior-senior hijrh school for boys, the roll number being between 420 and 460. "In view of these figures, there appears to be no urgent necessity for the erection of a primary school at Rongotai." Minister's Mind Made Up?

Mr. T. Forsyth, the chairman, said it seemed that while the Minister was evolving an educational policy, and was calling together a commission, he had already made up hi 3 mind that there was to be a junior-senior boys' high school. He (Mr. Forsyth) felt s'ure that the "decapitation" of primary schools would very seriously affect the whole primary school system, as it was known to-day. He strongly objected to such a "hotch-potch experiment" and was sorry that a lead had been given- in the matter by the Department before the commission was set up.

Mr. J. J. Clark moved: "That the board regrets that it is unable to accede to the wishes of the Department to delay the erection of the school, which in the opinion of the board is urgently necessary, and that the board should be allowed to call for tenders immediatelv."

Mr. Clark said that, as a resident of the Rongotai district, he was sure the primary teachers would take great exception to any "decapitation" of their schools. Let the Department experiment at the cost of some other board than the Wellington Board. (Hear, hear.)

Way should boys go to Rongotai to get their proficiency certificates? asked Mr. A. C. Blake. The boys were put to expense in the matter of school uniform, sports fees and other things which they would not be put to at a primary school. He did not think the boys received any real benefit from going to Rongotai to take their proficiencies. Those boys who wanted an academic course should go to Rongotai, and the others remain at the primary schools. It was well known to headmasters that the Standard VI. pupils gave a tone to a school, and their removal would injure a school. They should also remember that first assistants would not stay to teach Standard IV. He would not like to see anything done at Rongotai at the expense of the boys and girls of primary schools.

"Bobbed of Birthright."

Mr. C. H. Niebolls: It seems to me that the primary schools are being robbed of their birthright. The Department wa3 inclined to neglect the girls. The girls had every right to be associated with secondary pupils as were the boy 3 at Rongotai College, where he thought the environment was good for the Standard VI. boys. To him the solution of the difficulty would be to proceed with the erection of the primary school and open it as sucn. Dr. J. Mcllwraith (senior inspector) explained that the feeling throughout the world generally—in England, Australia and America—was that between the ages of II and 12, children should be sent to school to associate with their physical and intellectual superiors. This

I change for children of 11 (plus) -would be made in England next year. If any chance came in New Zealand, there would be no neglect of the girls. In Auckland, Oamaru and elsewhere there were schools where Standards V. and. VI had been transferred, leaving Standard IV. as the highest, and children in this class had assumed a leadership that they did not know they possessed. There had been protests at first, but these died down. Mr. Clark: Whatever the commission reports, we still want a primary school at Rongotai as quicklv as we can get it. Mr. Blake moved, and the chairman seconded: "'That in view of the fact that a commission has been set up to decide the policy with regard to junior high schools, the compulsory transfer of pupils "from Standards V. and VI. be modified in the direction of sending , to Rongotai College only those boys j who intend to take up an academic course." "Matter in the Melting-pot." Mr. Forsyth said Wellington had endeavoured to get a junior high school years ago. but unsuccessfully. Now the position was reversed. He objected to the "thing being jammed on now when the matter was in the meltinjr-pot." Mr. Mcholls: Can Dr. Mcllwraith assure us that if Standards V. and VI. children go to the junior high schools the teaching will be as proficient as in primary schools?

Dr. Mcllwraith replied that in all probability those first assistants who wished could be transferred to the junior high schools.

The Chairman: At present none of our schools in the city can carry on without the capitation allowance, which is based on attendance. If two standards are taken away, where will that leave them? The whole thing has not been thought out. In many cases in the past the Department ha 3 brought down measures, broad in policy and idealistic in conception, but with no contemplative of administrative detail. The present plan was ill-considered —a case of putting the cart before the horse. The primary school was the most important part of a child's education, and Mr. Blake's resolution was one in the right direction. The motions of both Mr. Blake and Mr. Clark were carried.