Higher Status For District High Schools Advocated

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28750, 22 November 1958, Page 14

Higher Status For District High Schools Advocated

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, Nov. 21. If district high schools were converted to full post-primary status, when the roll of the secondary department reached 120, the result would be the better standard of education for country children which the Minister of Education (Mr Skoglund) so desired, said Mr C. G. Frazer, president of the Post-Primary Teachers' Association today. At present the equipment and cash grants provided for district i high schools were on an inferior scale to that for schools of full post-pramary status, said Mr Frazer "Naturally enough, post-primary teachers are attracted to the better equipment, conditions and facilities for work at the larger schools. In these large schools there is more opportunity for specialisation in the subjects in which the teacher possesses special qualifications. In the smaller schools, teachers are often com*

polled to take subjects beyond their full range of special qualification.’’

Giving district high schools with rolls of 120 or more full post-primary status, as urged by his association, would sec consequent improvement in equipment, monetary provision and status and would result in bettor and more stable staffing. This would provide the better standard of education -which the Minister desired, and the children deserved.

At the moment, the practice ot the department was not to give full status to district high schools till a roll of 200 had boon reached. "Another point the Minister could examine with profit is the present inadequate provision of housing for post-primais teachers at district high schools. There are over 500 of these teachers, but present policy provides in general for one house only per school—and 50 teachers only are iso housed.”