EDUCATION SYSTEM.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20010, 19 August 1930, Page 6

EDUCATION SYSTEM.

♦ COMMENT ON COMMITTEE'S REPORT. tPBSSS ASSOCUTIOS TELEGSAJI.) TIMARU, August 18. Commenting on the second portion of tho report of the Education Recess Committee, to tho monthly meeting ot tho Timaru High Schools Board to-day, Miss J R Barr, Principal of the Girls' School, said the report had not en" ardtd to the schools, and upon so quick a perusal as had been it, vvouid ue unwise to express an opinion on most points discussed in the report. One gathered, however, that High Schools were ugly ducklings of the educational institutions, and the description given of them, on page 13 ot the report, was excellent, if somewhat startling reading. "1 searched in vain for thq opinion of at least one ot our secondary headmistresses. It is astonishing, to say the least of it, that the opinions of so lar<»o a section oi the system should have been ignored. Surely the natural equivalent to the agricultural bias in Boys' Schools is a domestic one in Girls' Schools. It is surprising, especu ally in a report with such a strong male bias as this one shows, that no mention is made of this section of the curriculum. I should have liked to read that heads of secondary schools were to be given a free hand in the comnilntion of the school syllabus. We are much more closely .in touch with the boys and girls than is the Department; consequently we understand better their neeas and capabilities. 1 shall be verv sorry indeed if the proposed changes in the system of management and control are carried into effect." The Rector of the Boys' School (Mr W. Thomas) stated that the report had just come to hand, and he was able lo make only passinor comment. With those of its proposals which had alreadv been embodied in the renort of the Primarv School Rvllab-ig Committee he was in Other revolutionary proposals, however, dealt so vitnl a blow at their freedom of control that if carried into effect their type of sehool would completely lose its individuality, and the work of fifty years would be as nothing. He urged the Board of Governors and the Old Bovs' Association to give very careful consideration to the report.