Duke's Award Scheme A Failure'

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30682, 23 February 1965, Page 13

Duke's Award Scheme A Failure '

j (N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright) LONDON, Feb. 22. British youth leaders have criticised the Duke of Edinburgh’s award scheme as a failure, “The Times” reported today. The scheme needed to be presented in simpler terms with a less “badge-ridden, militaristic type of image,” some leaders said. The youth leaders’ debate on the scheme was reported in the magazine, “Youth ReI view.” ' The chief critic was the

lecturer in educational psychology at Reading University, Mr R. J. Goldman, who said that although more than a quarter of Britain’s secondary schools were taking part, there had been an alarming lack of success among clubs. It was beginning to be recognised, he said, as a childish or children’s status activity. The scheme should withdraw from schools and concentrate more on the schoolleaving population and beyond, he said. “I think a lot of criticism is voiced in the youth service itself—that the scheme is somewhat Edwardian, of the Boys’ Brigade old nineteenthcentury vintage, in which you have to work for medals and badges and awards,” Mr Goldman said.

| “Modern adolescents are simply not interested in this; ■the less than average ability groups even less so. "It is this flavour of organisation which they tend to reject and to resent,” he said. The Duke of Edinburgh’s award scheme is his “personal honours list” for youth. It was started in 1956 as an experiment to encourage the spirit of adventure and good citizenship in British teenagers.

Applicants from youth organisations and schools win their awards for performances in varied spheres, such as first aid, rescue work, study or craftsmanship and physical fitness. At the end of a series of tests they qualify for a certificate and the right to wear a badge bearing the Duke’s cipher.