DEMOCRACY AND EDUCATION

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 138, 13 June 1934, Page 6

DEMOCRACY AND EDUCATION

I was talking yesterday with a man who •has been in a good position and is now on relief work, whose eldest boy is attending one of our Grammar Schools. He tells me that owing to the cost of books, stationery, etc., the subscriptions required for school institutions and various items of expenditure, he is having a great struggle to keep the boy there. In spite of the fact that the boy shows considerable promise he will have to be taken away as soon as a job can be found for him. At the same school there are boys attending whose fathers are in receipt of £1000 a year or more and are not in the slightest need of being a charge upon the public purse. This surely indicates a defect in our system. When free primary education was instituted it had the worthy object of fitting every individual to become an intelligent citizen and use rightly the privileges bestowed by democracy. This aim is being attained. Free secondary education had the equally worthy object of enabling boys of conspicuous ability to carry their schooling to a higher standard and equip themselves for any profession in which their special talents would be of service. To-day, with our narrow interpretation of the principle of equality of opportunity, we are not accomplishing what we set out to achieve. Surely there is a clear call for a reorganisation of the system of State aid in secondary education •bringing it more into accord with the principles of, true democracy. The allowance made to a lad\of proved ability whose parents are in straitened circumstances should be sufficient to meet all expenses, and the man of means should not be enabled to make the higher education of his children a charge upon the public funds. A.T.