‘REVOLUTIONISING’ EDUCATION

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29382, 8 December 1960, Page 25

‘REVOLUTIONISING’ EDUCATION

Drive For Research Advocated

(New Zealand Press Association) TIMARU, December 7.

A massive drive for educational research and services would revolutionise education in the same way that science had revolutionised engineering, farming, and medicine, said the rector of Timaru’s Boys’ High School (Mr M. A. Bull) in his report at the annual prizegiving cermony.

“We need .trained research workers to investigate the success of our learning processes," Mr Bull said. “They would introduce changes in our system, not on the basis of emotionally-held convictions, but on the results of objective research. Their new methods and organisation would be planned and tested, in a way that this country has never done. “Specially-detailed experts need to be set aside for the retraining of those who have become misfits,” he said. “If the expert finds a mental blockage which makes education an impossibility for some child, he can be identified, .and removed from a system which is unable to benefit him. If not, he can set' the child on his feet again.

“As a craftsman, I am sure complete failure would be rare. As a craftsman, I am convinced we are running our education system with- an efficiency far below what it would produce with scientific guidance, research, and services,” Mr Bull said.