Political parties discuss education

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33037, 3 October 1972, Page 16

Political parties discuss education

The education policies of the country’s four major political parties—National, Labour, New Democrats, and Social Credit —were given an initial airing last evening in a panel discussion arranged by the Hillmorton High School Parent-Teacher Association.

Those appearing were, Mr J. F. Burn (National), Mr N. E. Kirk (Labour), Mr T. K. Weal (New Democrat), and Mr J. Pounsford (Social Credit).

Both Mr Kirk and Mr Bum made it clear that their parties’ official education election policies were still under wraps, but Mr Kirk emphasised the importance of pre-school education, the need to stop fragmentation of education, and the importance of involving parents more closely with the running of schools. Mr Bum said that education must provide a diversity of opportunities and he, too, favoured the encouragement of a greater parental involvement, especially in the preschool area. The Social Credit and New Democrat spokesmen were firmly on the side of a more strict attitude towards education in New Zealand. Mr Pounsford said that education, although a right and not a privilege, also carried a responsibility; and unless students, for example, at university, made sufficient progress, their right to be there should be removed. “DIRECTION LACKING” Mr Weal said New Zealand education lacked direction, there was too much flexibility in the system, and too many moves away from traditional academic discipline. The schools had to work within the context provided by their own characteristic as an agent of intellectual training.

"The idea that the school must meet every need that some other agency is failing to meet is a preposterous delusion that will wreck the education system and the society it is seeking to serve,” Mr Weal said. It was only in the discussion of the technical institute system that the speakers were generally in accord. It was felt that the technical institutes offered great promise for the future, especially m the field of continuing education. Mr Kirk emphasised that the technical institute system existed to serve the great majority of people, but was not yet being used to the full. More opportunities had to be given for young people to proceed through technical institutes and carry credits for their work there on to university education. LOGICAL DEVELOPMENT To a question on student representation on secondary school boards, Mr Kirk was the only speaker to support the idea. It was, he said, a logical development of the democratic process, and it relied on the judgment of parents, who were the only ones able to vote a student on to a school board.

Mr Kirk said he doubted that there should be an official school leaving age. Mr Kirk said that to change the school leaving age, would not change the nature of the reluctant learner. It was his belief that secondary schooling must allow far more room for experi-

mental programmes. This would mean that the opportunity had to be given for increasing flexibility to allow pupils to attend work and school programmes concurrently. DIFFERING AGES In the changing nature of society the imposition of a strict school leaving age denied the philosophy of continuing education. There had to be allowance made for the differing ages of maturity, and people must be given the opportunity to come back into the system at a much later age than was now possible, Mr Kirk said. Secondary schools had an important role to play in a young person’s personal development and this could not always be attained under the present education system. “There is a need for the introduction of studies in human relationships with the wider view of fitting the individual into the community and showing him his responsibilityto it.”