Purpose Of Education Association Explained

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31986, 13 May 1969, Page 18

Purpose Of Education Association Explained

There was no doubt about the existence of the New Zealand Combined Education Association, a representative of one of its member bodies said yesterday. It was a strong and purposeful organisation which included all significant teaching and student groups in New Zealand.

The education vice-presi-dent of the University of Canterbury Students’ Association (Mr C. J. A. Draper) was commenting on a suggestion in a footnote to a letter to the editor of “The Press” yesterday that there might be no such body. The correspondent, Clive Hilton, had criticised an election survey conducted in some marginal seats on Saturday. Mr Draper, who organised the survey for the Combined Education Association, said that the survey was designed by members of the Association of University Teachers and his own association, and financed by the New Zealand Educational Institute.

It aimed to sound, rather than to mould, public attitudes, and was an attempt to find how much emphasis voters thought would be placed on education as an issue in the General Election. Questions Defended “The questionnaire was criticised by your correspondent on the ground that the questions encouraged answers favourable to one point of view. This was definitely not so,” Mr Draper said. “Householders were asked about education only after they had answered questions eliciting their own opinions on election issues and Government spending. “We could not have established what people thought if the questionnaire had been loaded, as your correspondent suggests,” he said.

“The other allegation—that

people were not approached consistently—also is unfounded. Householders questioned were selected by ran. dom sampling technique applied to an election map. “We expect that opinions other than your correspondent’s will be represented elsewhere in New Zealand.” The survey was conducted by university student volunteers in 11 electorates, Mr Draper said. Although small, the sample was expected to yield enough information to show whether the electorate was concerned about its readiness to face the future. Scope of Association

It was a pity doubt had been cast on the association’s very existence, he said. As well as the groups involved in this survey, the organisation included the Association of Teachers in Technical Institutes, the Free Kindergarten Teachers’ Association, the Post-primary Teachers’ Association, the Teachers’ College Association, and the Student Teachers* Association. Its main activity at present was a joint campaign to make educational investment a matter of public discussion so that candidates for Parliament would be aware of New Zealanders’ concern about the present situation. The survey of public attitudes to election issues was part of the preparation for this campaign, Mr Draper said, and the association was grateful for the public’s ready co-operation in it. The completed questionnaires would’ be analysed, and results would be available soon. * •