Candidates Oppose School Cert. System

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32118, 14 October 1969, Page 18

Candidates Oppose School Cert. System

Opposition to the school certificate pass system was expressed by all the Sydenham candidates who spoke at a forum on education at the Hillmorton High School last evening.

Mrs H. E. Garrett, who is not a candidate but represented the National Party on education for the second time in three weeks, supported the present system.

The Leader of the Opposition and Labour candidate for Sydenham (Mr Kirk) said that the school certificate should be replaced by a certificate of attainment, issued to all pupils. At present 60 per cent of children left school with a sense of failure, and many left before the fifth form rather than; face the examination.

The other candidates who spoke last evening were Messrs I. Moore (Independent), J. Pounsford (Social Credit) and B. J. Wedderspoon (Democratic Labour). The National Party candidate (Mr P. J. Morrissey) sent his apologies. Mr Moore, a teacher, said that teachers did not want: higher salaries but better! conditions and more oppor-i tunitieS. It was not the pay I that worried them, but the! extra hours spent on things: like departmental returns. Teachers should be able to I

, find their "talent levels" more ' quickly, said Mr Moore. They ’ should not have to wait until I someone died at the top. , He suggested that there j should be a separate channel 1 for educational television, • with material supplied by the , teachers’ colleges. This would upgrade the country J schools. Mr Pounsford said that i Social Credit put education | second only to monetary re- ’ form. The present spending on education was quite ini adequate, and there bad to be definite increases in teachers’ salaries. Many of > those teachers who had left i after four or five years had ■ not wished to, but bad had I to put their own families ■ first Mr Wedderspoon said that : while be respected the rights ; of minorities, spending taxpayers’ money on the salaries II of private school teachers was J betraying the interests of the 'majority. The Labour Party’s ■lproposals, he said, were a complete abandonment of the • democratic labour principles. The role of teachers was seriously undervalued in New Zealand, Mr Wedderspoon

said. They should have a status comparable with that of doctors, for while doctors looked after the bodies, teachers looked after the minds. Mrs Garrett said this country was not alone in its education difficulties. The Minister of Education (Mr Kinsella) had found on a recent visit to Sweden that “all the same expedients” had been tried there. Under the last Labour Government, the education vote had been 3.7 per cent of the national income, Mrs Garrett said. The present spending was more than 5 per cent National could stand on its record; it had nothing to be ashamed of.