HIGHER EDUCATION.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20543, 11 May 1932, Page 13

HIGHER EDUCATION.

MANY CHILDREN UNFITTED. (mX.33 ASSOCIATION TSUBaAAK.) WELLINGTON, May 10. Reference was made at the conference of the New Zealand Educational Institute last evening to the unwisdom of parents sending to high school,children who were not fitted to acquire the full benefits of an academic education. Mr S. Walker (Auckland) moved: "That a leaving certificate be issued-' to children completing their primary school course together with a recori card indicating their special aptitudes for post-primary education." He said the, original idea of proficiency and competency certificates was-quite good but, unfortunately, it had not bean adhered to. Proficiency was necessary *for any boy or girl who wished to obtain a decent job. Mr D. .Forsyth (Otago) supported the idea of a leaving certificate of a what easier standard than the present competency certificate, which J»e thought would meet Mr Walker's case. Mr Forsyth referred to the waste oE expenditure because of the number ot children who had gone into an academic high school, because their parents thought it was the place tor them to go to. They stayed, there a ve'ar, perhaps two years, and were then less fitted for work than when they started. Those pupils could have.been made much more useful citizens of i-ie State had they been forced- into technical or commercial Hfe.Bemits carried were as follows: — "That every child be.given'.the.best education within flie. capacity, of the J individual, State assistance to t« given where necessary. "That rhe Miropulsory age of attendance at school be i rom,seven.years to k 15, with the right of enrolment at fivw . years."