Pupils To Start Work Before Schooling Ends

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29744, 10 February 1962, Page 10

Pupils To Start Work Before Schooling Ends

(New Zealand Press Association)

HAWERA, February 9. A small, specially-selected group of Hawera children will soon be spending school days working for farmers, businessmen and contractors in an attempt to advance their education They are pupils waiting to leave school.

The "apprenticing out” of pupils will be under the guidance and control of Mr G. H. Tunnicliffe, headmaster of the Hawera Intermediate School. The project has been carefully planned by Mr Tunnicliffe and now requires only the final selection of pupils and employers before it is put into operation early in March. Mr Tunnicliffe has selected suitable pupils from the Form II level of his school. An agreement will be reached between each pupil, his parents, the employer and the headmaster before the members of the party will be known.

It is expected that 20 oupils, both boys and girls, will form the party. They all intend leaving during the year.

The children will initially spend one day a week in the outside employment of their choice. This time will be increased gradually until, at the end of the year, it is hoped that they will be completely settled into their jobs. “The purpose of the project is that of education—to enable the child to fit into society and to be happy and useful.” said Mr Tunnicliffe. Children who, by starting school late, sickness, or other reasons, had arrived in a Form II class late in their

school life, had to be catered for, he said.

“Many children are unsuited to an academic school programme, but excel in manual activities,” he added. “The school programme must have flexibility. It must be altered to suit the need of the children.”

The work they would do in in their “practice for work” year would not affect the employment of adult workers, he added.