COMPARISONS OF SCHOOLS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22467, 30 July 1938, Page 14

COMPARISONS OF SCHOOLS

IMPRESSIONS OF TEACHER ON TOUR -

ATTENTION GIVEN PHYSICAL EDUCATION ABROAD

{THE PRESS Special Service.] AUCKLAND, July 29. The opinion that in the teaching of fundamentals New Zealand schools compared favourably with any in the world was expressed by Mr J. F. Wells, headmaster of the Kowhai Intermediate School, on his return by the Awatea after an extensive overseas tour. New Zealand teachers, he added, could also hold their own against those abroad. Mr Wells received a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York last year to enable him to visit intermediate schools overseas. Accompanied by Mrs Wells he left the Dominion at the beginning of the year, and in a six months’ tour has inspected many schools in the United States, Great Britain, and the Continent. Making it clear that he was speaking only of intermediate schools, Mr Wells said that schools of this type in New Zealand were lacking in a number of important possessed by similar The Dominion schools did not have the buildings, the provision for physical education, the libraries, or the staffing which were to be found in the middle schools of the United States and Europe. “I have seen some wonderful buildings abroad,” he said. “Practically all of them have large assembly halls excellently equipped with stages, lighting, curtains, and many other facilities. In some schools' there are as many as 20 special rooms for the teaching of such subjects as music, dramatics, and the sciences and specialists are in charge of this work.” Schools in Stockholm Mr Wells added that in Stockholm two intermediate schools had recently been built at a cost of £70,000 each. They were modern in every respect and were remarkably well equipped. More attention was given overseas to the physical side of education and practically every school had its gymnasium and full-time instructor. In the United States they eveh went to the extent of employing a corrective officer, a specially qualified instructor, who was solely engaged in attempting to remedy physical defects in children. Compared with American and European schools the Dominion’s intermediate schools were ill-equipped. N Libraries in overseas schools were well stocked, and there was generally a full-time librarian in charge. Appropriate lectures were given, the children even being taught such matters as how to use indices correctly and efficiently. Staffing overseas was generally better than in the Dominion, Mr Wells added, with the exception of Germany and one or two other countries. The average class in European intermediate schools numbered about 30 pupils. Mr Wells said that when in Helsingfors he visited the school controlled by Rektor L. Zilliacus, who attended the New Education Fellowship conferences in New Zealand last year. Dr. Zilliacus had spoken highly of the education standards in the Dominion.