AN OVERHAUL OF EDUCATION

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 256, 13 July 1926, Page 11

AN OVERHAUL OF EDUCATION

Sir,—Your editorial of this morning, dealing with the Hon. Dounie Stewart’* hint of an overhaul of the education system, will be read with satisfaction by every friend of real national progress. Everyone acquainted with the education system knows that it has its weak spots, and because of this knowledge they can the better appreciate the spirit that is manifest in your article. It is quite a common thing .jwadayg to hear doubt expresseel as to “whether education pays,” or whether we are "getting value for the money it costs." The same question is being asked m nearly every country in the world, and the answers given are nearly ail >n the same terms—an increase in the amount of education given to the young, l.ver more and more is it being realised tl.-at national well-being depends on the development of national resources, and the most valuable of these is the brain-power and the will-power latent in the young. The importance of developing and utilising this source of power was finely’ expressed a little over a year ago by Mr. Winston Churchill in a letter to Lord Balfour. He said:

Our country cannot fuliil its n>i»sion in the world, nor oven maintain the organisation on wmcL its economic life depends, unless it commands an abundant and unfailing supply of young men and women equipped with the high advantages of education in its broadest and most varied forms; nor can our institutions have their necessary stability unless the directing forces are personally supplied and stimulated by the genius of the whole nation. . . . To cramp the brains of the nation while developing its thews or stimulating its appetites would, indeed, be a perilous policy. To come nearer home, the “Otago Daily Times’'’ on June 15 last says:— On a general survey there is only one answer to the question, does education pay in New Zealand? Undoubtedly. It goes on to show that the financial credit of New Zealand is in large part due to the quality of the citizenship built up by the education system. It enforces the point by quoting figures showing that in 18S0 of every 10,000 people 16.48 were in gaol; in 1924, -.he pro portion had sunk to 9.22. Bearing these things in mind, every friend of progress will welcome the suggested overhaul, since investigation cannot fail to show what good work has been done and how much more there is to do,—l am, etc., H. A. PARKINSON, Secretary, N.Z.E.I. Wellington, July 12, 1926.