EDUCATION BOARD

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25577, 19 August 1948, Page 3

EDUCATION BOARD

MR A. E. LAWRENCE NEW CHAIRMAN

ADDRESS TO SPECIAL MEETING

The board had been charged with needing prodding before it would move, but during recent years the board had faced periods of frustration causing feelings akin to desperation among its members, said the newlyelected chairman of the Canterbury Education Board (Mr A. E. Lawrence), making his first address as chairman at a special meeting of committees of the board yesterday. The changed departmental attitude since the new Minister had taken office had come like a “refreshing shower after drought,” and it was because of that attitude that the new board was in a fortunate position. “It has been given a flying start,” said Mr Lawrence. “We need a broader issue and a deeper understanding of the real purpose of education if our schools are to fit our citizens in the making to

play their full part in building an edifice that is not built on the shifting sands of materialism,” said Mr Lawrence. “We need inspired courage to face the problems that confront us in our sphere of education administration in a rapidly changing world. We need a substantially increased Measure of decentralisation in the control of education, and a very much closer liaison with an enlightened public opinion which is expressing its deep concern at trends in education, and is demanding improved accommodation, better equipment, more stability in teaching staffs, and more practical results.” No children should leave school to go into the harder world without being able to express themselves in the English language, he said. There was a common opinion that the pendulum of the new freedom in education had swung too far. The universities blamed the high schools, the high schools blamed the primary schools, and the primary schools replied to this criticism that they were carrying out the new form of education. Mr Lawrence paid a tribute to primary school teachers, and said that they were perhaps being asked to do too much.

"Signs of a Stocktaking” It was encouraging to learn, he said, that the education authorities were concerned about the new trends of education, and there were signs that a stocktaking was being made to bring attention to more definite educational training. “We are asking for a complete overhaul of the Education Act and its regulations; we seek improved and additional accommodation for our pupils and better equipment in many schools.” he said. The new board desired smaller classes and more teachers, and a longer period of teacher preparation. The board wished to guard the physical, moral, and mental health of the 35,000 children under its care, and favoured a more definite education for the prqper use of leisure.

The following committees were elected by the board vesterday:—appointments.—Messrs A. McNeill (chairman). F. G. Armstrong, A. Greenwood. J. F. McDougall, F. H. Dephoff, and C. J. Dugdale; buildings, Messrs A. Manning (chairman), S. J. Irwin, W. T. Langley. C. S. Thompson. R. J. Cooper, F. L. Turley, and G. Edgar; agriculture. Messrs Armstrong (chair man), Edgar. Dugdale, Dephoff. McNeill. and Turley; manual and technical. Messrs Langley (chairman), Irwin. Manning. Cooper, and Turley; Normal School and Training College. Messrs Irwin (chairman). Armstrong. Greenwood, Langley, and Dephoff; finance. Messrs Greenwood (chairman). Langley Manning. Turley. Cooper. Thompson. and Edgar: transport and consolidation. Messrs Thompson (chairman) Edgar. Manning. McDougall. McNeill, and Dugdate.