POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27011, 10 April 1953, Page 10

POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION

| EXPLANATION OF | CORE SUBJECTS INSPECTOR’S ADDRESS •' AT ASHBURTON '"The need for a proper and fuller understanding of the common core was Stressed by the chief inspector for pest-primary schools in the South jjttand (Mr J. L. Cameron), when he sKplained to the Ashburton Technical Epgh School Parent-Teacher Association last evening the purpose behind the present post-primary syllabus of a tissic education. -In New Zealand the idea of a solid Sl-rqund education for children up to the school-leaving age of 15 years was about 10 years old, and there were sound reasons for each subject in the core, he said. The key subject was English, a medium of communication in all subjects, a medium for discrimination in everything, and a key to literature, “not only the standard classics but all that is best. “The name for the next subject, social studies, is a much misunderstood term we have borrowed from America,’’ he said, “but not so the matter. It provides a picture of the world we are living in today. First of all the local area, then the country, then the Commonwealth, and finally the world. Its aim is also to give the history of the world and an understanding of present events.” Need for Mathematics

A person who attempted to get about In present conditions with no more than a passing acquaintance with addition, subtraction and division was asking for trouble, and so elementary mathematics, not arithmetic, was included, he said. “It is to enable a youngster to find his way around in the maze of figures he will encounter in our modern community. However, I hope pupils will go beyond the elementary stage. “An endeavour is also made to drive home the fact that we are living in a world of living things as well as dead forms. That is why we have general science which includes biology. practical physics and chemistry and nutrition. “The remaining three elements are concerned with leisure time,” he said. “Physical education, not the least popular part of the curriculum, is designed to make use of the body efficiently and enjoyably. Music is to teach discrimination in musical form with an emphasis on the pupil taking an active part, and arts and crafts is to give a grounding in the principles of design. “Of the total number of subjects which can be presented for the school certificate examination only foreign languages and commercial studies de not spring from the core syllabus. Those who have been in the thick of the change have seen a major revolution in the type of education presented in post-primary schools,” Mr Cameron said.