EDUCATION REPORT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 222, 19 September 1930, Page 5

EDUCATION REPORT.

TECHNICAL TEACHERS' VIEW. INCONSISTENCIES NOTED. COXTEOL CHANGES APPROVED. The Auckland branch. of tie Xew Zealand Technical School Teachers' Association. at a general meeting held at tie Technical College, discussed rally tie report of the recess committee on education. Tie branch gave a generous measure of support to tie reeommendaItioss of the committee, but considered! i from the fact that few of tie details 02: : ~t]n& E'dlSUlß 01 X6org2lliSili2oll "WCv.6 worked out that there were serious eases of tie report being inconsistent. A ease in point was tie suggested control of syllabuses and examinations for tie technical schools in tie main centres as distinct from their control in tie smaller towns.,. _It was felt that the matter of the "agricultural bias" was being pushed too far. It was suggested that an effort to cram agriculture as & pure science into every school curriculum would only defeat its end. as in many eases it would become a drab, academic study. Tie result aimed at- would best be gained by providing, in suitable centres, a few more agricultural high schools, with farms of tie Feilding type. The branch did not favour the general establishment of ■ tie intermediate! schooL The very rapid expansion of | the technical schools in recent years had j demonstrated that there was a veryj real public demand for this type of edu- j cation. In fact, for some years the facilities in Auckland, as well as in j other centres, had been insufficient to cope with the demand. In the large centres there was room for varied types of schools, including junior technical schools to act as feeders for the senior technical schools, whose status it is proposed to raise. But in the smaller centres, where technical schools are

already established, "It was felt that the reorganisation could best be enected by attaching to those schools the pupils of Perms 1 and 2 to make junior departments. The changes of control -were approved, provided that recognition was made of the unique position of the technical schools* specialist courses, which required special treatment in such matters as inspection, classification of teachers, the training' of teachers -at;HI their relation" to industry. In order to guard against the "use of influence and patronage it was felt that examinations or set conditions for scholarships and bursaries were greatly to be preferred to any nomination system which might'be devised, and that financial aid could be restricted to those in need of it. The branch heartily endorsed the proposal concerning leaving certificates, as a solution to the matriculation examination problem which had been strongly recommended by the Xew Zealand Technical School Teachers' Association for two years past. It could see no valid reason for concentrating the training of technical teachers in Wellington. It opposed the principle of compulsory transfer."