SCHOOL GROWTH

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31776, 5 September 1968, Page 8

SCHOOL GROWTH

The intermediate school system was endorsed by the Commission on Education in New Zealand. Since then there has been a steady increase in the number of these schools so that in 1967 there was a total of 90, including three intermediate depart-

ments attached to secondary schools. This year 22 new intermediate schools are being built: six are already under construction, six are approved to go to tender and 10 are being planned with a view to going to tender shortly, says the Director-General of Education (Dr K. J. Sheen) in a mid-year review. “This means that during this year alone there will be a 20 per cent increase in new intermediate schools which are past the planning stage,” he says. Approval has been given to establish in February, 1969, two other types of schools—form 1 to 6 schools at Kaeo, Okato, Methven and Palmerston, and an entirely new type of school, an area high school, at Ranfurly. “The significance of these three developments—a large increase in the number of intermediate schools, further provision for form 1 to 6 schools and the establishment of an area high school—is that, while the school system is providing for considerable roll increases, there is also progress in establishing types of schools which will improve the quality of education both in city and rural areas,” says Dr Sheen.

At secondary level the new form of School Certificate examination, with opportunity for separate subject passes unrestricted by the four subject aggregate pass requirement, is available for the first time. Seventy per cent of secondary pupils now enter the fifth form and, for the first time, within reach of the majority will be credit for knowledge and effort in even one subject of a nationally

recognised examination, he says.

A new scheme for secondary teacher grading relating to appointment and promotion has been introduced this year. “Receiving less public attention than changes in School Certificate it has nevertheless far - reaching effects on the quality of education provided in schools in that it enables inspectors, who are drawn from the ranks of the most able teachers, to give more time to the professional task of advising teachers and providing inservice training for them,” Dr Sheen says. An unobtrusive and yet remarkable achievement in secondary education in 1968 was the effective handling of an unexpectedly large increase of nearly 12,000 secondary pupils. Staff and accommodation needed for the equivalent of about 14 large secondary schools have been found with a minimum of disruption.