‘Misrepresentation’ Of Remarks On Reading

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30855, 14 September 1965, Page 3

‘Misrepresentation’ Of Remarks On Reading

(A'eto Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, September 13.

The Minister of Education (Mr Kinsella) said today that the interpretation placed by the president of the New Zealand Post-primary Teachers’ Association, Mr J. R. Caldwell, “on my reply to a Parliamentary question on low reading levels seriously misrepresents my attitude and the Education Department’s concern and continued efforts in dealing with this problem.

Mr Kinsella said Mr Caldwell had said every teacher would be “appalled” at the Minister’s claim that low reading levels were “quite natural and satisfactory.”

“Mr Caldwell ignores the distinction I made quite clearly the distinction between the children whose attainments roughly match their abilities and those whose attainments do not,” Mr Kinsella said.

“The first group includes large numbers of children of very modest ability and it was to these I was referring when

I said that a reading age of 11 years or lower at the time of entry to post-primary school was ‘quite natural and satisfactory.’ For his own purposes, Mr Caldwell deliberately chose to take this comment out of context. SPECIAL CLASSES

“Would Mr Caldwell have me tell the teachers of the intellectually backward children in our special classes that they are falling down on their jobs if their pupils do not reach the level of achievement of the average child? Or would he have me say the same thing to the many hundreds of other teachers who have some pupils of a similar or somewhat higher degree of ability in ordinary classes? “Teachers would indeed have reason to be ‘appalled’ if I failed to recognise that with some children a relatively low level of achievement represents the best of which they are capable. We have, of course, an obligation to do all we can for these children of limited ability but only a certain level of achievement can reasonably be expected. “The second group includes those whose attainments in reading fall a good deal short of their apparent abilities. They exist in very considerable numbers (as they do in other school systems) and I said no word that implied that we should be complacent about this situation.

“Mr Caldwell himself admits that I and my department have recently taken some ‘positive and worthwhile steps’ in the matter, which is hardly a sign of com-

placency. Some of these measures, such as the expansion of the specialist reading services, have not yet had time to show their full effect, and I believe that we can look forward to steady progress towards the solution of this long standing and difficult problem. “I am always ready to discuss with the Post-Primary Teachers’ Association these and other important problems and any positive and practical suggestions it might have on them,” Mr Kinsella said.