EDUCATION.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20089, 19 November 1930, Page 11

EDUCATION.

UNITY OF CONTROL DEFENDED. DEFECTS ALLEGED IN PRESENT SYSTEM. Clearing away much of the mist which has risen round the recommendation of the Education Committee that the control of education in the Dominion be unified, Mr J. G. Poison, past president of the New Zealand Educational Instituto and vice-Principal of the Christcliurch Training College, asserted before the Canterbury School Committees' Association last night that teachers stood squarely behind the principle of the recommendation. He admitted that many of the details of how the theory was to be put into practice remained obscure, but lie scouted the idea that local control was to be weakened. An illuminating account of liow our ''wretched tri-partite system" had risen, aimlessly, and largely from unhealthy rivalry among contending factions, formed an instructive part of his address. The Tirst Test. "If sweeping changes are contemplated and existing institutions are in danger of being swept away, what is the test of the efficacy of such changes?" asked Mr Poison. "Surely the first and only test must be: 'Are they good for the child?' If they are, then they must receive our support and yours. "The wretched three-fold divisions which exist in our system to-day are largely tlie result of the unhealthv rivalry of the past. There is no justi-, fication for High School and Technical' School Boards as they exist to-day, but it is easy to see liow thev have grown up. The struggle for supremacy brought with it different classifications in. different departments, and what happened to the child during the struggle? He suffered. We can remember the extremes to which Mr Hogben was constrained to go to force the free place system into secondary schools which were closed except to privileged classes. "In the primary schools to-day we have men and women with qualifications as high as those in any other branch of the service, yet what is their

status? I hold that they are doing the most valuable work, because, if the foundation is weak, what is to happen to the superstructure? Local and National Functions. "Thus the Institute stands for the unity of control as an attempt to remedy the evils of this threefold division. In each district there would be a body— 1 do not mind what it is called—which will control the education in that district. We believe the unit of control should be the area, not the school, but we also believe that there are certain functions of education which can rightly 1)6 regarded as national, and these must be retained by the central department. "The payment of teachers, their, classification and appointment are three functions which some say should be in thte hands of the local authorities, but we are looking for a national register of teachers. So far as appointments go even now in the primary schools Boards have only nominal power. Details Obscure. "I must admit that the details ot how the scheme is to be practised are obscuro in the report. The powers which are to be given to local authorities are also inadequately defined. What the Institute wants to see abolished is petty interference by the central authority in affairs which 'are essentially local. When the Minister addresses you I hone you will ask him to define where the responsibility of local bodies begins and ends." A Different Angle. The secretary of the Association (Air S. R. Evison) said that Mr Poison had enunciated the teachers' viewpoint of the recommendations in the report, but committeemen l were apt to approach them from n different angle. Consequently everything said ,by Mr Poison .might not be accepted by them. Until they were quite clear about the details arid their precise effect on local control they did not favour inter- , ference with the existing powers of Education Boards. Mr Poison: If anything were done to lessen the powers of local _ authorities teachers would be disappointed indeed. I don't think it is intended, and we certainly -do not want it, but we do want things national*to be kept under national control. That is essential for a contented teaching service which means so much to the welfare of the children. Mr Poison was thanked for his address.