Progress Against Poverty

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31863, 16 December 1968, Page 18

Progress Against Poverty

President Johnson’s efforts to alleviate the effects of poverty on the education of young children were showing real signs of success, Mr C. T. Ford, reader in education at the University of Canterbury, said yesterday. Although vast Federal aid set aside for culturally “disadvantaged” children had not reached them all, the start had been good. Mr Ford said the culturally disadvantaged group was in poverty-stricken areas and comprised mainly Negroes,! Puerto Ricans, and im-| poverished white people. He was able to draw a comparison between the situation seven years ago, when he last visited the United States, and during the visit he has just completed. Mr Ford studied four aspects of education during his 11 months abroad—administration in selected systems, provision for the culturally disadvantaged, special provisions for the emotionally disturbed, and the treatment of delinquent children. He said the United States education authorities had made a concerted drive within the framework of the money available to close the gap between the children stunted by poverty and the rest. The problem had been tackled at pre-school level by providing enrichment classes which aimed at widening the horizons of the children. The work was carried into elementary schools by the provision of intensive services through smaller classes and additional resources. At secondary-school level there was provision for spe-

cial instruction in selected school districts. Follow-through programmes were also in force to encourage able children to go to university. This included some financial provision. "This is a very real effort to make provision for the children and the indications are that it is being successful,” Mr Ford said.

In Britain the problem had hardly been touched but in Australia a Dutch foundation had been supporting a scheme for the education of Aborigines. . He found that the care and education of emotionally disturbed children in the United States and elsewhere was ahead of that in New Zealand.

He attributed this to the limitations imposed by the smaller population of New Zealand and the shortage of facilities for the training of teachers of such children. The figures indicated that the proportion of emotionally disturbed children in New Zealand was much the same as in other countries. In the United States attempts had been made to sort out emotionally disturbed children into various categories to facilitate treatment. There was special tuition for children who could not Use language for communication (aphasic) and those who would not communicate (autistic). The lack of attention to the problem of educating emotionally disturbed children was underlined in New South Wales, where there were known to be 100 aphasic children but where only 18 were getting special schooling. In Thailand Mr Ford found that four years schooling was the limit, although there was widespread agitation to increase it to seven years.