School Television

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31215, 12 November 1966, Page 14

School Television

The Hillmorton High School Board has been quick to see that extended hours for television next year will remove at least one of the obstacles to the experimental educational programmes by this medium which it has advocated for more than a year. The board suggests that part of the afternoon television sessions, to begin next April, should be directed to schools. Staff and transmitters would not have to be brought into use specifically for school television; and there is no reason why the educational programmes should not appeal to many in the general audience of viewers. Thousands of parents and others enjoy the present radio broadcast to schools. Parents would know what was being taught on television and subsequent discussion between parents and children Avould help to make the lessons effective. Before the Education Department or the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation considers television for schools, something more should be known about the use made by schools of the present radio broadcasts. The machinery for presenting these programmes is undoubtedly efficient; but there has been no recent report on the effectiveness of this medium of instruction. When radio in schools was a novelty, there was a clamour for general participation. School committees made strenuous efforts to obtain the master receiving set, the console by which selected programmes could be switched to appropriate classrooms, and speakers for every room. Most primary schools are now equipped in this way. Yet some use no radio lessons at all; many use them rarely. A survey of the economics and value of these expensive installations should be made as a guide to the possible advantages and disadvantages of school television. It is not enough to acknowledge that specialised information and skilled teaching can be shared by a much wider audience; that pictures as well as the speech and sounds of other peoples and other lands can be brought into the classroom, often within a few days of a historic event. Those who counsel caution say that films can do as much, at less expense, with little disorganisation of timetables, and with the advantage that a teacher can choose in advance films which are appropriate to his lesson programme.

These are good arguments against rushing into school television; and they are reinforced by the obvious problems of providing receiving equipment in schools, preparing programmes acceptable to most, and selecting teachers with the special qualifications for this demanding work. Afternoon hours of television should permit some experimental transmissions to schools; but all the implications of sustaining regular programmes and ensuring their wide use must also be explored. New Zealand has no dire shortage of teachers such as other countries have found to justify the wide use of television for teaching.