Boards’ help urged in pre-school education

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33033, 28 September 1972, Page 18

Boards’ help urged in pre-school education

The “ideal solution” to the growth of pre-school education was for preschool organisations to elect members to New Zealand’s 10 Education Boards, which might then control and service such education, the annual conference of the Education Boards’ Association was told in Christchurch yesterday. Mr H. P. Fowler, convener of an association committee considering the recent report on pre-school education, said that he considered the formation of separate pre-school councils to control pre-school education would only add “another joint” to the education system.

“We are happy, to provide services as suggested, to preschool education, but our desire is to have machinery which is expeditious,” he said. New Zealand’s 10 Education Boards were not agreed that the formation of preschool councils was the right method to pursue, but an effective compromise could be worked out, Mr Fowler said.

Mr L. A. Lorrigan, president of the association, said that the boards had the facilities and expertise to foster and control development in pre-school education to a much greater degree than at present. "This could well include, in certain circumstances, the use, for preschool purposes, of school buildings and grounds, particularly in many rural areas,” he said. There seemed to be no compelling reason why the experimental aspect of incorporating pre-school education in the normal school atmosphere could not be extended now. The answer depended, Mr Lorrigan said, very largely on the Government’s inten-

tions regarding the expansion of pre-school services and the monetary involvement of the Government in pre-school education.