HIGHER LEAVING AGE ADVOCATED

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30763, 29 May 1965, Page 17

HIGHER LEAVING AGE ADVOCATED

f-Vew Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, May 28. Raising the school leaving age to 16 or 17 and abolishing the school certificate examination, to be replaced by a school leaving certificate, were advocated by Dr. W. B. Sutch, former Secretary of the Industries and Commerce, at an in-service course for headmasters at Auckland University.

He also said specialised training and vocational guidance should be eliminated from secondary schools, where the same basic curriculum should be taught to all pupils. Specialisation should be taught at tertiary institutions after four or five years of basic education at secondary schools, he said.

“School certificate is not a guarantee of any particular, kind of performance because

of the easy options like bookkeeping, typing and mechanical drawing,’* he said. Subjects which were most “educational,” as had been proved by overseas countries, were one’s own language, which opened up one’s social heritage, history and geography, general science, mathematics, music and the visual arts.

“If any other subject is introduced as a substitute for any one of these, the effect is less education,” he said.