SCHOOL-LEAVING AGE

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23742, 14 September 1942, Page 6

SCHOOL-LEAVING AGE

PROBLEM OF LABOUR AFTER WAR TECHNICAL COLLEGE BOARD RECOMMENDATIONS Arguments about the raising of the school-leaving age and the training of youths of 18, 19, and 20 years of age in the armed services as soon as the war is over arose at a meeting of the Christchurch Technical College Board on Friday evening when a report on these subjects was read. The report was drawn up by a committee set up to consider schemes to provide educational and re-employment facilities for younger members of the armed forces when they are discharged and for young people who are displaced from their positions by the return of servicemen into those positions. Messrs T. W. West (chairman), S. Baird, E. D. Brown, T. Nuttall, and J. E. JoneS comprised the committee and Miss C. E. Robinson (Girls’ Vocational Guidance Officer), Mr G. M. Keys (Boys’ Vocational Guidance Officer), and Mr L. R Denny were present by invitation. The committee recommended: — That the school-leaving age should be raised to 15 years immediately at the end of the war, and children should be excluded by law from gainful occupation up to that age. (From figures supplied by Miss Robinson and Mr Keys it appeared that in Christchurch alone about 700 children under 15 years of age entered into employment in 1941). “We feel that at the end of the war, whenever it ends, there will be thousands of young men between 18 and 21 years of age in the military camps throughout New Zealand,” said Mr West. "If they are discharged as soon as the war ends they will be launched holus bolus on to the labour market. There will also be many young men returning from overseas, and the problem will be how to regulate the flood of labour. If the leaving age is made compulsorily 15 years, there will immediately be thousands of vacancies available for young people who have left school or who have returned to civilian life from the forces. In a recent statement Dr. C. E. Beeby (Director of Education) said that it was the Government’s intention to raise the age immediately conditions improved, and that it was impossible at present because of the building and staffing difficulties. But that is the mistake; it is necessary to prepare now for the time when it will be possible and Indeed necessary to raise the age to which a child must continue at school.” Mr W. T. Langley; We should advocate at once the provision of buildings, because we’ll need a great many new ones to house the extra pupils. Mr E. D. Brown: I agree with Mr Langley. The end of the war must be anticipated, however far off it may be, 'and buildings and teaching facilities must be prepared or considered now. Mr J. E. Jones: The Labour movement has advocated a school leaving age of 16 years for many years, I suggest that six months after the war ends it should be made compulsory for children to stay at school till they are 16 and for them to be subsidised, helped by the Government, if neces6"ry. I would rather see a boy of 16 at school and receiving Government help than see a man walking the streets out of a job. The man has no future. The boy is getting an education. The time could be counted as part of his apprenticeship if necessary. In Soviet Russia to-day they’re in school up to 18 years, and surely the British Empire isn’t going to lag behind the rest of the world.” This recommendation of the committee was unanimously approved by the board, as were all other recommendations made by the committee. Other Recommendations The report of the committee will be sent to the Minister of Education (the Hon, H. G. R. Mason). The following were further recommendations made:— “The armed forces should be demobilised gradually after the war ; to allow the older men and Women with good employment experience taba dis*. charged first and’to tie absdrßßcF2Bßor suitable occupations. The 'yodffgetf ones with little or no employment experience, : except those who had approved positions to, go to, should be kept in camps and put through educational courses of a vocational character to enable them to be absorbed when they are discharged. The value of the type of training given in the Civilian Conservation Corps camps in the United States during the depression was emphasised as providing an example that might be followed in New Zealand after the war.” “A special youth rehabilitation board should be set up in each centre to deal with the education and placement of the younger men and women, and it should work in close co-opera-tion with the youth centres." "It should immediately be made permissible for the youth centres to undertake the guidance and placement of men as well as women up to the age of 21 years. (At present they may assist youths only up to .the age of 18 years, except in the case of those who have not previously been in employment.)" "That young men and women now in the armed forces should have the best educational courses that can possibly be provided for them without interference with their courses of military training. (Some of this work would need to be done in the camps, where better facilities should be provided, but much of it could be done in the technical colleges and university colleges adjacent to the camps.)” “That the accommodation and educational facilities of the technical colleges should be improved now to enable them to deal with educational requirements as soon as they arise."