POST-PRIMARY SCHOOLS

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26886, 12 November 1952, Page 12

POST-PRIMARY SCHOOLS

THE “PROFESSIONAL” COURSE .

CONCERN ABOUT LIMITED CHOICE

Freedom in the syllabus, which gives principals wide powers over the subjects to be taught in post-primary education, coupled with the difficulty in securing enrolment at a chosen school in Christchurch, has raised a problem which is causing growing concern to pupils, their parents, and some educational officials. There are only three public schools in Christchurch at which post-primary pupils can take a full “professional” course consisting of English, Latin, French, mathematics, and a science. These hadtheir rolls filled weeks ago, and many applicants are now obliged to go to schools which do not offer the scope of course desired by some pupils intending to go on to university. ’ Although no schemes of selection have been announced by the more popular schools, there are reports of plans which will make even more rigid the chances of entry to a chosen post-primary school in Christchurch. One school is reported to be full for 1954 on provisional applications taken to assess accommodation requirements. One principal is said to be considering standard five reports as a guide to pupils he will accept a year hence. Another is considering a stipulation that entrants must agree to remain for a minimum of two years before they will be accepted. Some preference is being given to children of former pupils at some schools. In all cases early application is essential. “The Press” asked the responsible authorities what rights pupils and parents had to expect a given choice of subjects at any school. As far as could be ascertained, the syllabus may be determined by principals, and neither the Education Department nor the Post-primary Schools’ Board intends immediately to change the system to require that any school to which a pupil may have to go shall offer him the “professional” course. Department’s Attitude

Mr L. Cameron, senior inspector of post-primary schools, said: “The Education Department’s view is that, provided the regulations are carried out and compulsory core subjects offered, inspectors shall act only in an advisory capacity. The emphasis in the department now is on the individuality of schools. Otherwise the curriculum is a matter for principals in consultation with the schools boards and, in Christchurch, with the central Postprimary Schools’ Board.’’ Mr P. J. Halligan, secretary of the Post-primary Schools’ Board and ot its associated individual school boards of managers, said: “It is unfortunate that it is now not possible to give pupils an unlimited choice of schools and in the schools an unlimited choice of courses. But those parents who were alive to the accommodation situation were able to arrange for both the school and the course of their choosing by early application.” Classroom accommodation for all pupils desiring to enter post-primary schools next year was reasonably assured, Mr Halligan said, but the main high schools’ rolls had been full for some months. He admitted that there was a big demand for the “professional” course described. In some of the other schools “options” under the core might prevent a language and mathematics both being taken. It was natural in previous circumstances that these other schools should have developed a different type of curriculum, Mr Halligan said. The demand for them to offer the same as others had arisen only since pupils had failed to gain admission elsewhere. Vocational Guidance Officer

Mr G. C. Brookes, the District Vocational Guidance Officer, said that obvious remedies were to ask all schools to offer a full range of courses in the present difficulty or to increase accommodation at the schools whose “professional” courses were so popular. At present there were no geographical boundary restrictions on the post-primary schools which a pupil could attend in Christchurch, he said. One method of selection used in England and Australia involved the testing of children at the age of 11 plus, and on the results they were drafted to various types of schools and courses. “With the highly-developed democratic ideas on education in New Zealand such a system would be unlikely to find favour,” Mr Brookes said. “In the circumstances I am inclined to agree with many parents that the most equitable solution would be for all schools to offer all types of courses in the present emergency. In the first term there could be thorough testing so that any necessary adjustments in the child’s course could be made early in his school career.”

Mr Brookes agreed that vacancies at schools which offered the full “professional’’ course were very restricted. “The result is that children who could profit by this type of education cannot obtain entry next year and their parents are anxiously trying to get them in elsewhere where the courses may be more limited,” he said. “Undoubtedly there are pupils not really capable of taking full advantage of the professional course who gain admission to schools offering this instruction solely through early application. Thus they keep out deserving applicants.” University Liaison Officer

Mr Gordon Troup, liaison officer between Canterbury University College and the post-primary schools, said he was also aware of the growing difficulty. Before 1943 the usual school certificate or university entrance examination course consisted of English, mathematics, French, Latin, chemistry, and history. “This was a good grounding for any higher academic work,” Mr Troup said, '’but it was beyond the scope of many pupils.” The Thomas report of 1943 recognised this, and in view of the impending divorce of school certificate from university entrance, with the introduction of accrediting, the committee recommended: (1) that English be the only compulsory subject, (2) that 20 odd “practical subjects” be added (such as clothing, animal husbandry, woodwork, etc.), (3) that a “common core*’ of English, arithmetic, general science, social studies (history and geography), physical education, and art, craft, and music be set for all

pupils, and that the school certificate course be extended to four years to allow all this without sacrificirffe basic subjects. The last clause was not enforced, although at least one private ! school in Christchurch observed the ; pattern and was able to give a fuller i course, Mr Troup said. In the scheme adopted the hours to be given to various core subjects were stipulated. In a normal school week of 25 teaching hours, more than half was taken up with “core” in the critical first year, Mr Troup said. Thus foreign languages were crowded out—in some schools entirely, in others only one could be taken, and in still others French or Latin was an alternative to mathematics. Yet some schools, notably girls’ State schools and boys or girls’ private schools, sometimes managed to present (right from the first year) mathematics, French, and Latin without damage to the common core. These schools usually worked more than a 25-hour week, counting physical education, music, art, etc., as largely recreation, so that a 28-hour week was considered tolerable. Mr Troup suggested as remedies to the present trouble: (1) working a longer school week, (2) relaxing core requirements for candidates taking mathematics and foreign languages, (3) counting Latin and French as “social studies” for teaching time purposes, (4) or restoring the four-year school certificate course so that the hours available in a school career would permit an extra subject. Parents’ Associations’ Interest Difficulties are only now beginning to be realised by parents and if is unlikely that any relief will be given next year, but it is believed that the matter will come before the Federation of Parent-Teacher Associations, as an approach by parents to the Postprimary Schools’ Board or the Education Department seems the onl> acceptable procedure. In the meantime many people are known to share the view of one parent: “Why should schools nor offering the professional course to which my child has been referred deny him the range of subjects he will require as preparation for his entry to university? Parent are entitled to some assurance that, if they cannot choose a school offering this syllabus, the others are obliged to change their range and that the new multi-course schools to be built will also meet the present difficulty.”