CRITICISMS OF N.Z.

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25737, 24 February 1949, Page 5

CRITICISMS OF N.Z.

“All Incentives Disappearing”

VIEWS OF FORMER

RUGBY HEAD

(Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, February 23. “New Zealand is a gem of a country and the people are simple, fine-natured, and friendly,” says Mr P. H. B. Lyon, a former headmaster of Rugby and a recent visitor to the Dominion, in an article published by the Liverpool “Daily Post.” “Strangers are welcomed and looked after, and if they have the sense to avoid any suggestion of condescending to a young and raw community, they will be adopted in a remarkably short time as members of the ‘family,’” he said. “With the gradual disappearance of all incentives (financial or otherwise) to initiative, strenuous industry, and the exercise of intelligence, the working community has settled down to a complacent and comfortable jogtrot There is a drift away from fundamental industries and from the rather strenuous work on farms (on which the country’s wellbeing so largely depends) to easier jobs in the secondary industries which are springing up in the main towns, where more money can be earned at the expenditure of far less toil and sweat. “How far this attitude is the result or the cause of the country’s social security scheme, it would be hard to say. Probably a bit of both. But it is, I imagine, by now so deep-rooted that it will survive even if the scheme is modified by a future Government. Such modification is not unlikely, though it may not be achieved without some bitterness, for guaranteed high wages, a compulsory five-day week.

the gradual elimination of private enterprise and disregard (in most spheres) of all claims to higher posts except that of seniority—these have all brought with them results which might well be pondered by our own reformers.

Fault Found With Education “All these criticisms, often much more violently expressed, have been made in my hearing by New Zealanders of all classes and occupations. And the same is true of comments on the educational system of the country. There is a great deal to admire in New Zealand education. The Government realises its importance and spends money upon ft with a lavishness which might well be imitated elsewhere. But thfc best judges I found were not altogether happy. In the first place the proportion of teachers to pupils is too * low (one to 29 or 30). This either means that classes are too large or—more often —that teachers are over- > worked and have little energy left for anything but class teaching. “Second, the system of grading teachers keeps them at the mercy of annual inspectors, and tends to encourage slavish uniformity. Third, and this is by far the. most serious criticism, the general purpose of the schools is regarded as social rather than educational. This affects both the composition of the schools and the work done there. There is no selective principle at work. The authorities regard it as far more important that an able boy should spend his school years with all the other children of his own locality, than that he should go to & school where his abilities can be more fully trained and extended. Yet, surely, in a democratic country more than anywhere, the best brains must be given the best chance if the State is to make full use of its resources. Obviously a non-selective system makes a high academic standard hard to attain, but it need not in itself involve the lack of a thorough grounding. “Yet the ‘soft pedalling* which is beginning to show itself in industry is becoming manifest in the schools. There are certain subjects which are decreed by the State for all secondary schools. They are not in their nature very exacting, and there is little time left for those subjects which can only be mastered by much salutary concentration and hard labour. It is here that the independent schools are putting up a fine fight for a sterner curriculum, not without success, and certainly not without much moral support from the more thoughtful citizens.