PRIVATE SCHOOLS

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 226, 12 June 1923, Page 4

PRIVATE SCHOOLS

SHOULD THEY EXIST?, UNIVERSITY DEBATE The Victoria University College Debating Society on Saturday evening debated the subject: “That all children in New Zealand should be required to receive their primary education in state secular schools.” This motion was moved by Mr. J. A. G. Simpson, seconded by Mr. J. B. Yaldwyn, and was opposed by Mr. D. C. Cullinane, supported by Mr. S. E. Baume. There was a large audience, over which Mr. R. M. Campbell presided. For tho affirmative, Mr. Simpson stressed the paramount importance of education as an agency in the development of modern civilised states, and urged that it should be controlled by society as a whole, and not by sectional interests within society. Education was. in- fact the primary and most important function of the state. Tho unified control of primary education would render possible increased specialisation and differentiation to meet sectional requirements. The schools would not necessarily be alienated from religion, but their control would bo secular. In the ideal sys* tern of the future, education would in a large measure be controlled by the professional teaching body ; the teachers would have organisations analagous to that already enjoyed by the medical and legal professions. . A general system of state education would thus be perfectly free from interference by ill-informed politicians. Mr. Cullinane, in opening for the negative, claimed that private schools in New Zealand educating some 24,000 children up to the standard required by the State, were discharging a function that amply justified their existence, and their arbitrarv closing would constitute a gross violation of liberty. Moral education was of necessity based upon the sanctions of religion aud the moral element in the present State schools suffered from the lack of those sanctions. Progress m education required freedom to develop on new lines; and the uniformity produced by a State monopoly of education would stifle all originality. Such a monopoly would also destroy parental interest in education. While admitting the right of the State to insist on a minimum standard of education, he denied its right to prescribe how and from whom the instruction should be obtained. Mr. Yaldwyn urged that the present dual system of public and private schools was both wasteful and_ inefficient. The latest available figures showed that only 12.7 per cent, of the pupils in standard VI. of the public schools of the Dominion failed to secure certificates of proficiency or competency, while the percentage , of failures in the private and church was 24. The segregation of large numbers of children during their most impressionable years led to an estrangment between the various denominations and paved the way for intolerance and bigotry so inimical to the best interests of the people. Mr. Baume contended thtft the limit to the State’s function was to require that every, child should be developed mentally, morally, and physically into a true citizen. Many of the present State schools were notoriously inadequate in equipment and staffing, and their defects would bo intensified by the closing of private schools. Sectarian schools were the product rather" than the cause of sectarianism and bigotry. To destroy the schools and so deny true religion and with it true morality would be an act of injustice more subtle, but not less intolerant than to close the churches themselves. Many other speakers contributed to the discussion. The motion was put to the meeting, and rejected by a small majority. Professor G. W. von Zedlitz acted as judge and placed the best speakers in the folldwing order: —Messrs. Baume Yaldywn. Campbell, Heron, and Burton.