EDUCATION REFORMS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 294, 11 December 1943, Page 8

EDUCATION REFORMS

DISCIPLINARY VALUE VIEWS OF " TECHNICAL HEAD The consultative committee appointed bv the Minister ot' Education to report oil the subject of educational reform had among its 'members men and women wno had serveu with distinction in New Zealand education, and the committee had the confidence of educationists in general, stated the principal of the Scddon .Memorial Technical College. Mr. G. J. Park, in his annual report presented at the prize-giving ceremony yesterday. "However," added Mr. Park, "some attempts have been made in Auckland, 1 hope without success, to create doubts in the public mind as to the probable contents of the committee's report and the general tendency to abolish external examinations based on a restricted syllabus of academic type. The core ot the post-primary school syllabuses of work seems likely to follow that commended by world ' famous educationists, and although there will be some nece-:.-ary rc-adjustmenis which may be uncomfortable for some. I am sure the reforms will be of great benefit to this country and will be welcomed most of all by the students. "It is said that the disciplinary value of many of the long standing subjects will be ios'. la my opinion, there will be a far more effective discipline of a self-imposed nature derived from the .study of subjects of abiding interest to pupils because they bear upon the world in which they -live and not upon environments far away either in time or in place." IXDIE HASTE NOT WANTED It was to be hoped that adequate notice of the proposed educational reforms would be given to schools on account of the difficulty of securing text books, from overseas, together with the increased cost of all educational literature, said Mr. C. M. Littlejohn, headmaster of Auckland Grammar .School, at the prisse-sriving. He expressed the hope that no undue haste in introducing the altered curriculum would be forced upon schools. Mr. Littlcjohn stated that the school was closing with a roll number of SOo. having begun the year with an enrolment of S-10 boy;?.