Call for rationalisation of entrance to university

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32614, 24 May 1971, Page 21

Call for rationalisation of entrance to university

(By

V. P. WILKINSON)

Mr Muldoon has more than once hinted that the public is not getting enough return for the money it has invested in education. Unfortunately, in the past the money has not been spent wisely and it was only last year that it was spent on the best way possible—on salaries that would attract well-qualified teachers.

In these days of theory and gadgetry it is often forgotten that the best medium of teaching is still the teacher in the classroom, and it is on him that money should be spent, not on expensive buildings and equipment; good teachers do not need these aids to do a good job. Admittedly, these aids are of help, but it is comparatively minor compared with the teacher’s personal contribution. It is also obvious from an address by Mr Taiboys (Minister of Education) that one area of extravagance is university intake. We are trying to keep up with the American Joneses if we adopt the principle that every pupil go on to university. This may be possible in America where size and wealth have provided such a variety of very good and not-so-good universities that high school students can find some college somewhere to attend for a year or two—or even get a degree of very good quality or very poor. Also the American high school system is criticised even by its own writers as a joke, and college is necessary to tnake up for its deficiencies.

We cannot afford to provide university education for

all those who wish to sample it, nor do we need to. Technological Institutes and commumty colleges can provide opportunities for tertiary education to many who at present attend university and drop-out after a year or two. Mr Tallboys also pointed out that a different type of sixth form education must be given’ to those who do not wish to go on to university. These pupils, who have just as much to give the community as those in the more specialised fields of university education, need different skills and attitudes from those required to win bursaries and scholarships to make them into citizens that have represented the solid core of New Zealand society in the past Obviously, if admission to the universities is going to be resticted and at the same time a different type of education is going to become necessary for the “nonacademic,” some hard thinking will have to be done about catering for the smaller group.

Christchurch intake At present about 650 pupils from the Christchurch state secondary school system proceed to university. It

is interesting to note that • out of 1000 pupils in the < Christchurch area who went to university, approximately i two-thirds came from single- ’ sex schools. If the intake is cut 20 per , cent, this means an average of 40 pupils a school if there was strict zoning (not allowing for differing social conditions in the Christchurch suburbs.) This means that every school would have to provide the same course. For example, the 30 pupils doing Latin or German would be scattered over the 13 schools

—meaning classes of two in each, which is ridiculous. On the other hand, all schools would have to provide a full range of workshops for their non-academic pupils, facilities at present lacking in the more "academic” schools. Would it not be better to concentrate the academic students in the few schools that are geared by staffing, experience and tradition to university preparation and leave the other schools to concentrate on the equally important job of training; for citizenship?