Johnson Report progress

Press, 6 May 1980, Page 36

Johnson Report progress

PA Auckland Up to 90 per cent of the recommendations of the Johnson Report are already on their way to implementation, the Minister of Education (Mr Wellington) has said. He told a polite and receptive meeting of the Auckland Federation of Parent-Teacher Associations that past debate had been over-concerned about the controversial sex-education clause. A lot of the “good stuff” in the report had received little publicity, in spite of widespread port by people who had .made submissions. “These other clauses were for things like more guidance counsellors, attention to physical fitness, outdoor education and the teaching of a basic knowledge of diet,” the Minister said. “My estimate, and it is an informal one, would be that probably 90 per cent of the report recommendations are either in train or in process.” Mr Wellington said the Johnson Report showed that the public wanted

schools to provide “more of the same” with additional sharpening of skills needed to develop employment opportunities. A Cabinet ■ committee was investigating the transition from the school to the work-force of the 1980 s. “The Government does not accept the philosoph.v of training for unemployment,” said Mr Wellington. “To do that would be to admit the inadmissible.”