WORLD EDUCATION PROBLEMS

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26094, 22 April 1950, Page 2

WORLD EDUCATION PROBLEMS

MEANS OF ASSISTANCE SUGGESTED ADDRESS BY DR. BEEBY Speaking to delegates of the third international conference oi corresponaence educators last evening, the Director oi Education (Dr. C. E. Beeby) outlined ways in which the international correspondence school organ-sation might help in educating the illiterate ana partially-eauea tea peoples Oa. tne world. Looking back over the problems that had--confronted him at UNESCO. Dr. Beeby said it was not often generally realised that a gap existed in some countries between town and country education. He recalled that he had seen in Mexico a town School that was a virtual palace that would probably have cost millions oi pounds, ana in a country village he saw a two-room school of baked clay for 800 children under two teachers. On tne day o his visit the school cculd not be useo because a complimentary bull-light was being accorded him and the schoo building nas one side o. ths bull-ring. Although education had to be tailormade for a particular country, said Dr. Beeby, the correspondence school organisation’s skill in cutting and preparing courses had s imething that might be transferred to countries where there was this educational need

Fi.ty or 60 per cent, of the human race was illiterate, said *;r. Beebv, introducing his second problem. It was, he said, of vital concern that m ■ people of Indonesia and Asia shou d be able to read and write and be able to take some part in some form of democratic government, but their difficulty was that there were no teachers with adequate training for the job. “It occurs to me that your correspondence school has a contribution to make in giving concrete assistance to these teachers in a certain order with certain content,” he said. “How you are going to do it I don’t know. All I intend to do is to give you the idea.”