SECONDARY SCHOOLS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 99, 29 April 1935, Page 14

SECONDARY SCHOOLS.

"NO GREAT PROGRESS." REVIEW BY ASSOCIATION. "No great degree of progress has been made in the reorganisation of postprimary education because of the continuance of the financial depression," states the annual report of the Secondary Schools' Association, which is to be presented at the annual conference next month. "Our schools have been much hindered by the continued drastic reductions in Departmental,grants, and in many instances they are finding it diflLcult to make ends meet.

"Subsequent to the united efforts of the civil servants and teachers, a partial restoration of salary cuts was made tho Government, amounting to 5 per cent increase on the reduced salaries. Your executive is co-operating with the Civil Service for a further restoration of cuts, feeling as it does that it is a vital issue to the profession that salaries should be restored to their former level, which, judged by the importance and exacting nature of the service rendered, has never been adequate.

"Candidates for the school certificate were, for the greater part, entered for the examination by virtue of their being candidates for entrance. The incidence of success and failure in the two examinations showed the certificate to be not so easy of attainment as some were inclined to expect, and there seems to be good reason to hope that the certificate will in time establish its prestige. To a limited degree the Public Service and some professional societies have conceded the equivalence of the certificate to university entrance, but thore are still some substantial obstacles to be overcome."

Concern is expressed at the state of the grading list for teachers, and it is .stated that unless something is done the effects will be most detrimental on the teachers in the secondary service. One solution of the difficulty suggested is the increasing of the number of secondary school pupils. The association has already adopted the policy that the school" leaving age should be raised to 15 years anil lias urged this upon the Government without success. It says that no educationist can feel happy in the knowledge that in these days children may leave school at 13 and 14 years of age, or that 40 per cent of children leave school without any post-primary education.