The Dominion. MONDAY, JULY 2, 1917. EDUCTION AND NATIONAL EFFICIENCY

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3125, 2 July 1917, Page 4

The Dominion. MONDAY, JULY 2, 1917. EDUCTION AND NATIONAL EFFICIENCY

The Minister of Education made a disappointing reply on Saturday to a deputation from the conference oi directors and supervisors of technical education which has been sitting in Wellington during the last few days. As reports of the conference proceedings have shown, tnose engaged in directing and supervising teohnical education, in tno _ Dominion are unitedly of opinion that the system ft stands has serious ) shortcomings, and should be.radical y reformed in the interests of national efficiency. To that end the conference framed a scries of recommendations. The most important were that children should complete the primary school course at the- age of 12, that full time day education should be compulsory up to tho ago of 15 years, and that education should bo given a vocational trend between tillages of 12 and 15, and that boys and girls until they reached the ago of 18 should be compelled to attend continuation classes in tho day time for not less than oignt hours,per week, employers to grant tha necessary facilities. To these proposals tho Minister gave a favourable reception. Ho admitted tee. grave need of reforming and amending.tho education system on the lines suggested, and freely made such admissions as that evening continuation classes had been tried in many parts of, tho world as well as m New Zealand, and were not siiccessful;in dealing with tho great majority of tho children. But/having outlined opinions that might have been supposed to put him on common ground with the deputation, Mr. Hanan went on to show that ho regards what he called "tho improvement.of tho,education of tho young as a basis for commercial and industrial success" oiot as a vital and pressing problem of tho day, ! which it undoubtedly is, but as one that must be relegated to an indefinite future. The task for the reformers, ho sa/irf, was to develop public opinio:,, and he added that some of tho proposals made by the! con|orp,jcc would involve legislation, M 1", it had been agreed that''the present session of Parliament should ' be, devoted to matters connected with the war., Evidently Mr. . Hanan considers'that the., reform of technical education is not a matter connected with the war. It would thcrcforo appear that the task, of tho reformers is not merely fp "develop public opinion," but to convort_the Minister of Education and lift him out of the groove in which he is running for tho period of tho Var, apparently with no serious idea of getting out of it-. . If Mr. contrives to resist conversion to a moro active and enterprising policy, it will be' for no other reason tjhan that the people of New Zealand in general are apathetic and indifferent in regard to a problem which vitally concerns the 'welfare of their children and that of the Dominion in the near future. Broadly speaking, the position now existing is that we are maintaining a costly and cumbersome education system which confers no greater benefit upon a majority of the children of the Dominion than is to bo gained in "a .short'and not particularly satisfactory primary course. At a meeting of the Council of Education last week, it was pointed out that over fifteen thousand children, less than two-thirds of whom have passed Standard VI, leave our primary schools every year. Of these fifteen thousand/about five thousand proceed to the secondary schools,district high schools, and technical high"schools, and another fifteen hundred enter tho evening classes of tho technical schools. There is thus a yearly leakage of over eight thou- | sand children whose education is completed when they leave the primary schools) and nearly six thousand of whom- have not passed Standard VI. It is painfully obvious that this result, as the council pointed out, is not creditable to the Dominion, and does not.make for national efficiency.' More evidence to tho samo effect might be piled up lalmost indefinitely. A Trades Council deputation which waited upon the conference of directors and supervisors of technical education a few days ago stated, amongst other things, that the training of' apprentices had broken down in tllo 'Dominion. This is an opinion widely held, and one which seems to call for only minor reservations. Tho collapse of tho apprenticeship system is not wholly duo to tho faulty educational system. Employers, organised Labour bodies, parents who are unwilling to boar sacrifices in order to promote the welfare of their children, and potential apprentices themselves, must all accept their eharo of blame. But thoro is no doubt that tho establishment of a sound system of compulsory technical education would assist in a material degreo to romedy tho conditions exemplified iu tho collapse, or threatened collapse, of tho apprenticeship system. A remark made by Mr. Hanan on Saturday that technical education provides tho i'f orm pi education most suited to tho

needs of seven out of ten of tho boys and girls passing from tho primary schools will bo endorsed by most of those who have looked into the question. To say this is not, of course to advocate purely utilitarian education in a. narrow sense. A satisfactory system of technical education would not aim merely at pro, moting commercial and industrial efficiency. _ That is important, hut tho essential aim should be to r jVO . mote on broader lines the general improvement of the individual nvJ tho community. ' am Tho need for rcfo-„, :,, „ i ... » and general ag, >n^ £„lW te ?» flip hvmrl F V- dCrai3U . t '.obtains as to weed i' m u ¥ *' ifc should IZ t- .froP'fcA»niilar in character t 0 fc ij o) a , oj[ Ulo confcrcnco of directors -and supervisors of toch- . flieal edVieation have been advanced by tho Uouncil of Education. Ifc is all the more difficult to understand the attitude of tho Minister of iiDUCATiON since this particular reform is obviously entitled to a prominent place in tho prograrahio ot measures for tho promotion of national efficiency which is now taking shape. If Mr. Hanan oonsiders that the reform and improvement of technical education is nob a matter connected with the v?nf, we should think he is alon,e (Vmongsfi those who nave eonsidcwd tho question in holding that view-, Tho war is leading up to a period of intense commorcial .sonfe. in whioh national effioioncy will lie the best guarantee of national prosperity. In the ciroumstances, it is difficult to accept tho Minister's dictum that a reform which would mako heavily for national efficiency must bo held over for attention at a later date. His plea of lack of resources is not without claims to consideration, but it would bo weightior if it woro unassailable. Wo, however, have to consider not only whether money can be readily found to carry out a, llsoful extension of tho education system, but whether expenditure on this reform oan wisely be withheld when tho result of that course must 'be'to heavily handicap tho Dominion "in years to come. This is essentially a Cifno for economy, butthero aro SUrely many directions in which economy might niore wisely bo practised than in stinting necessary and essentially reproductive expenditure on education. For instance, it would to much better to cut down tho expenses of Parliament and of the Ministry and to stop such works as the new Parliamentary Buildings than to unduly limit expenditure on our technical and other schools. There is still a wido field to be worked also ,in cutting down tho consumption of luxuries in tho Dominion./ Mh. Hanan'b sympathy with reform in'our education system, is not open to question, but his attitude towards tho recommendations of tho deputation is disappointing, and certainly takes far too little account of the vital factor of national efficiency. ■