MR NASH’S VIEWS ON EDUCATION

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21656, 14 December 1935, Page 18

MR NASH’S VIEWS ON EDUCATION

w Professor Forder’s Criticism COMPARISON MADE WITH ENGLISH SCHOOLS [THE PEESB Special Service.] AUCKLAND. December 13. The comments at Petone of the Minister for Finance (the Hon, Walter Nash) on educational matters were criticised by Professor H. G. Forder, professor of mathematics at Auckland University College, who has had more than 20 years’ experience of the educational system in England. Professor Forder said the statement by Mr Nash seemed to show that he believed there was more specialisation in New Zealand secondary schools than in English schools. The exact contrary was the case. “The great public schools of' England have always had specialised classes at the higher stages, and this specialisation has been encouraged since the war in the State-supported secondary schools by the institution of advanced courses by the Board of Education for specially gifted pupils.

“About 500 of these advanced courses are recognised,” Professor Border continued. “They receive special financial support from the Government, and their number is increasing. The course is narrow but deep—it may be classics only, or mathematics and physics or English and a foreign language—and it is a two-year post-matriculation course. The work is often taken to a higher stage than is possible in any New Zealand school under present conditions, and in some respects, at least, it is comparable in standard with our degree courses rather than with school work here. “If New Zealand is behind the times in educational matters, as the Minister states, the remedy would be in an increase and not a decrease of specialisation in schools. Only in this way can we have a body of students who would derive real profit when they enter the university. “But it is not only in the schools that there should be more opportunities for specialisation by a gifted pupil,” Professor Forder said. This is also necessary in- the university. While it should be still possible for the average student without special gifts to take a course which was wide without being deep, the brilliant student should be given special facilities for pursuing his studies in the direction in which his talent lay. Nothing was done in New Zealand at the present time for this class of student, and the country was poorer for this neglect. While a generous community would rightly make special provision for the average and for the unfortunate in body or mind, it would also, if it were wise, make special provision for the specially gifted, instead of leaving them to shift for themselves as at present. “I should view with grave uneasiness any proposal for further sacrificing the best brains in the country for the sake of the mediocre,” said Professor Forder. “Such a course might be popular, but it would be suicidal.”