Junior Colleges After 4 Years Reconsidered

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31225, 24 November 1966, Page 12

Junior Colleges After 4 Years Reconsidered

Mr C. V. Gallagher, headmaster of the Shirley Boys’ High School, who earlier suggested that establishment of a junior college in Christchurch should be considered, has supplied the Secondary Schools’ Council with further comment on his proposal. Without discussion, the council referred his report to the Christchurch Secondary School Principals’ Association, from which it is seeking comment.

Mr D. W. Rutherford (Shirley) said his board appreciated the consideration given to the idea by all boards of governors and by the Canterbury University Council. Submission of this further report was not an attempt to interfere with the principals’ discussions but an effort to help. ‘Greatest Challenge’ Mr Gallagher’s report said New Zealand education was facing the greatest challenge in its history. The last and most successful approach to secondary school reform was the Thomas Report. Today the great responsibility was to make pupils think. Secondary educational thinking had moved away from vocational training. Up to school certificate level there was little vocational training but after that there was a "violent change” for most. Lower sixth forms aimed to pass four or five subjects to gain university entrance or to improve employment prospects. Sometimes there were “vague wanderings” in subjects which were often unsuitable. 1 The Thomas Report, said Mr Gallagher, recommended four years for school certifi-

cate. This was wise thinking but practice and public opinion had altered the programme.

“I believe we must return to the concept of a four-year course in which vocational interests are not the controlling factors of curriculum and course study,” said Mr Gallagher. Mr Gallagher claimed that all this showed that the break in schooling should come between the high school concept of developing intellect and consequent vocational training. This should be about the end of the fourth year at high school. Divergence of special interests could follow in junior colleges, technical institutes, and other forms of tertiary education, often with convergence again at the universities.