N.Z.E.I.

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23945, 12 May 1943, Page 2

N.Z.E.I.

The diamond jubilee of the New Zealand Educational Institute, suitably celebrated in the surroundings that saw its birth, is an occasion upon which the warmest congratulaf;ons are due to it as the oldest teacher body in New Zealand. Its /i-aI and vitality, praised by the Minister of Education yesterday, Pave contributed endlessly to the progress of education. Indeed, it is a progress of which every measure, every development, exhibits the thought, purpose, and force of the teachers at work. The history of education in New Zealand, however, explains why the institute has been obliged, through many changes and cau-es, to maintain one cause un-cca.-!ugly--lhat of the teacher's profesiional status and its proper recogr;ii ion. It is a victorious cause, and it is so largely because of the institute'.- effort. But it has not been possible to sustain this long struggle without a degree of concentration, of preoccupation even, which has had its harmful effects. The time has come to repair them. It is already being used. But Hie institute will certainly gather from its jubilee and the sense of past achievement the will to extend its aims and pursue them. It may, for example, with greater freedom than before, . et itself to attack the problems of professional unity and of educa-

tional policy AS a United profession may conceive and develop it. If there is disorder and confusion of purpose and method in New Zealand education, it is reflected (and promoted) by the division of teacher organisations, the primary, the secondary, and the technical. In Scotland, the Educational Institute embraces both primary and secondary teachers, to the profit of both; and it is hot, perhaps, a disconnected fact that this body has much more systematically applied itself to the study of educational problems, practical and philosophical, than any of the New Zealand bodies. There, at all events, is an end to which the institute, independently if necessary, in affiliation with the other teacher bodies if possible, should now plan its advance. Leadership in the discussion, planning, and active promotion of educational inquiry, in every respect that will tend to raise professional standards, skill, values, and their attainment, should more and mors be asserted by the teachers, rather than by the departmentalisls; and the responsibility for creating this leadership is the institute’s.