TECHNICAL AND HIGH SCHOOLS.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20280, 4 July 1931, Page 21

TECHNICAL AND HIGH SCHOOLS.

AMALGAMATION PLAN. MR M'GREGOR WRIGHT'S OPINION. ■ • v That the amalgamation of technical high schools and secondary schools under ono management, as proposed by tho Minister for Education (the Hon. H. Atmore), would tend to divert the best brains from the technical courses to the examination .courses was the opinion expressed by Mr McGregor Wright, chairman of the Technical College Board of Governors, at last night's meeting of Board. He further stated that the proposed changes would be a retrograde step. "The Minister told us when the deputation waited on him on June 17th that his ideal as ti secondary school is Oundle, a well-known English school made famous by the great headmaster Sanderson, where craft work is mingled with the study of languages and mathematics to form the perfect blend of education," said Mr Wright. "Ho obviously would like to have many schools of the type of Oundle in New Zealand, and in that wo support him heartily, for Oundle is a school with a curriculum very like that of the New Zealand Technical High School. I can hardly believe that lie has realised this fact, for ho is disestablishing technical high schools and attempting to add their courses to those of the high schools. The almost inevitable result of this will bo to make strong academic courses still stronger, and to divert the best brains frorii the agricultural, commercial, trades, and home science courses to the examination courses, Taken altogether, technical education' will suffer by the change. Effect on Staffs and Children. "The Minister is thoroughly in earnest and believes that he will safeguard technical education by placing a number of members on the boards of governors representative of commercial, agricultural, and industrial interests. Yet this will bo largely nullified by the fact that he is sending the children from the disestablished technical high schools into secondary schools that are traditionally academic in their "outlook. The .principals and the highest paid members of the staffs of the composite schools are to bo university graduates, teaching particularly general secondary subjects. The teacher of technical subjects will fill almost entirely the- lowest positions on the staffs. The psychological effect of this method of staffing can. have only ono effect on pupils and staff alike. "The principle of co-education, which is followed in the technical high schools and which is strongly recommended in the report of the Minister's own Commission on Education, is also to be sacrificed. I still wonder what object the Minister hopes to achieve by, the elmnges that he proposes, and whether the ultimate end will; justify the sacrifices that will have to be made in the existing schoolß. It certainly was some comfort to have his assupance that the technical high schools in the four centres would not be . changed, but I Had not expected anything else. At the same time, I believe that whatever changes he makes now, in ten years' time we shall have our post-primary education organised again very much as it is now, or in other words, that the proposed changes are retrograde."