SCHOOL PLANS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 44, 22 February 1937, Page 8

SCHOOL PLANS.

TEACHERS RESUME.

PROGRAMME FOR YEAR

MANY CHANGES PROBABLE.

NEW ACCREDITING SYSTEM. Teachers sat at their desks to-day in empty classrooms. Outside there was long grass in hundreds of playgrounds. For the staffs it was the opening of the 1937 school year, and 3000 teachers returned to duty under the Minister's order of a fortnight ago "to make thorough preparations for the work of the new year." In primary and secondarv schools, in high schools, technical schools, native and private schools and in training colleges, schemes were afoot for the real launching of the year's big education programme 011 Monday next.

After a break of nearly ten weeks the teachers generally welcomed the opportunity to be back at their schools, and probably many mothers breathed a little easier iu the knowledge that the last week of the holidays had arrived. Of course, they have their preparations to make, too, but a few busy shopping days, au hour or two at the sewing machine, and everything will be in readiness for the day when nearly 100,000 youngsters, youths and maidens, of ages iij) to IS or 11), start out for the reassembly of the schools and colleges in the Auckland province, following the longest holiday they have had iu all their- school experience.

Well-bronzed youngsters. It should be a healthy, well-bronzed army of youngsters as it treks to school next Monday. Summer has been bracing, and a February like the average April has toned up voting physiques for the work ahead. So lessons should go with a swing, and when the. next break, Faster, now only live weeks off, arrives the year's programme should be well begun. At least, that is the hope of the teachers who have to cram the ordinary first term s work into little more than two months, allowing for ths inevitable disturbance of the Coronation celebrations in the middle of May.

To-day. in the city schools, there were staff meetings, the syllabuses for the jear were discussed, rolls were iu preparation, and scheme.* of work received attention. In other years these duties fill the late afternoons and evenings of the teachers in the hurly-burly of the first few weeks; there is overtime to work and not until the term is well on the way is everything in complete shape. To have these particular tasks dealt with in advance will be a great advantage, and one that will offset in some degree the loss of February.

As Afr. T. U. Wells, chairman of the Auckland Education Board, said to-day, these are important duties in the larger schools, and there is no limit to the planning that a teacher can do in the interests of his class. Old-time methods of working strictly to lesson books have gone by the board, and the modern teacher puts the stamp of originality on his teaching. There is more freedom to map out the field of instruction, the variety of the work is greater than it was, arts and manual crafts are finding a more important place, physical exercise is claiming more conscious attention and dental and medical services all have to be given a place in the crowded school day.

Proficiency Exam. Gone. Besides all these features, there is another and entirely new development in New Zealand education. The proficiency examination has gone, and in its place is a system of accrediting. Teachers have asked for this for years, and now they have it there is a challenge, as one authority said recently, to prove its worth. No definite instructions have been given as to what is to be substituted, or indeed, as to whether there is to be a substitution, for the old educational standards. Much is left to the discretion, knowledge and initiative of the teachers themselveß, and there will be plenty of room for enterprise and individual initiative.

One thing, however, appears certain, that the three R's —reading, writing and] 'rithmetic —will remain as the foundation of the child's schooling. But, the old bogy, the exam., has disappeared, and the crowd of youngsters who never give of their best when put behind a desk with a set of .questions in one hand a pencil in the other and a time limit imposed, will find education far more interesting and absorbing than was possible before. No longer the year's grind for that end of the year test where, try as one might, sometimes everything would go wrong. No longer the moulding of -the syllabus to one end, the passing 6f the exam. In freedom it is a great and welcome gain, but will the new system work? Probably several years will have to pass before an answer can be attempted. At any rate the interval should be sufficiently long to rule out any idea of a return to what is gone.

Towards Smaller Classes. There is another aspect of education that has become important. Many teachers have been in a kind of "floating" state, taking relieving positions here and there, but having no permaneiwy of employment. This, the Minister says, has to cease. He has warned those who are "waiting around" for town positions that they are being watched. Neither the teachers nor the pupils who come under their charge can do their best work when appointments are temporary; and, therefore, a change should be beneficial all round.

Further ahead is the education overhaul promised by the Government. In one respect, smaller classes, which Labour has as a plank of its policy, it will not be easy to take immediate action, for the surplus of teachers has largely disappeared, and several years will be needed to provide for the increase that must come if classes are to be cut down. But in another direction, library facilities, the needs of the schools should be easier to deal with, provided the money is available. One of the outstanding moves of 1937, of course, will be the launching of the milk-in-schools scheme. Beginning in the main cities, extending to the towns and later to the country districts, .this scheme is in the interests of- "health first," and doubtless other countries will be eager to learn the results.

A most interesting year is in prospect for the young New Zealander.