EDUCATION REFORM.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16406, 28 December 1918, Page 8

EDUCATION REFORM.

ESTABLISHMENT OF NEW

CLASSES,

THE MINISTER'S PROPOSALS.

(SFECIAIi TO "THE PEESS.")

WELLINGTON, December 27

An amendment of the Education Act last session makes it possible for the Governor-General in Council to establish compulsory continuation > classes, which may or may not be technical classes. Formerly this power was possessed by the school committees and the boards, but the result of that rule was that tnere were only seventeen classes in the whole of the North Island, and not a single class in the South Island, i The Minister of Education intends to make use of this additional power given to him under the law, and he intends to order the establishment of classes, preferably trade classes for the training of young porsons engaged in skilled! occupations. Instead of the old procedure by which the school committee was required to make the first move for the establishment of continuation classes, and had then to make application to the Education Board, 'and then, if the Board recommended the classes, had to submit the matter to the Minister for his approval, the Minister has now power, tnrougn the GovernorGeneral in Council to make regulations not only for the holding of evening classes and oompiilsory attendance at them, but for the holding of day classes as well. The most attendance that can be compelled is one half-day during the daytime, end one evening in any one week. There is a proviso that regulations requiring part-time attendance at daytime cla&scs shall apply only to such trades, businesses, occupations, or callings, or any part or rxarts thereof, and only within such districts, as may be prescribed. "I believe in trade classes to supplement workshop practice," said the Minister in a statement h<x made on this subject. "I hope that the directors of technical schools will meet the employers and tho industrial associations, and x>oint out to them the benefit ofl part-time day classes, and point out to them also that the establishment of these classes will merely bring us into lino with, tho England, South. Austrcilia, and other parte where this reform has been tried. A little later I hope to address these bodies with a view to showing them how it is to the advantage of the employer as well as to the employee, and in the intorcsts of industrial efficiency, to encourage this reform. Tho first task of r ? centl y-app°inted Superintendent of Technical Education. Mr La Trobo, will be to work out the details of the scheme, and prepare the regulations. Ihesc will in turn have to be submitted to Cabinet."

Among tho classes which will have nt t?" i ® to do with technical schools, will be those compulsory classes m first aid, physiology, homo hygiene, and home nursing, which the Minister intends to establish soon. These will bo under the control of tho Education Boards. They will have to be hold in the primary schools, possibly also in tho higher schools, and, indeed, in any suitable building which may be available. As the classes aro to bo compulsory, it would not be possible, owing to the size of the classes, to house them in the technical schools. For the purpose of establishing these classes the Minister was given avote on the Supplementary Estimates of £1000. In Wellington the Minister has been in touch with the chairman of the Education Board (Mr Forsyth), who happr>r>« to have been an enthusiast in ambulance work, and who is strongly convinced of tho need for this training for the younir. He has promised the Minister to bring tho scheme before his Board, and he hope* that classes will he established in Wellington during the early part of next year. The compulsorv powers of the Government extend only to young rtersons from 75 to 17 year's of age. The-subjects will not he added to the primary schools syllabus.