OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 72, 18 December 1926, Page 11

OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM

Sir,—The National System of Lilucalion provides for children of all ages unj every creed a sound education. The system is acknowledged to have no superior in any country in the world Visitors i'rofn oversea• pay . generous tribute to the system and its results. Recently, an English visitor decribed children and people of New Zealand as the most intelligent of any of the peoples whom he had visited, and be is a constant and a world-wide traveller. No other country spends so much money per head on education or provides greatei opportunities for students to acquire degrees. The Crime Statistics prove that the social-moral results of our system are equal to the l-.est attained in oilier lands, and far ahead of the majority of count lies. Tim testimony of publishers of books that the people of this Dominion are one of the best book-buying communities, and that there are more newspapers ami magazines published per thousand of the population than in any other land, constitutes proof I hat the average intelligence is higher than in most peoples; whilst the pel capita standard of production is the highest in the world. These excellencies have to bo attributed in a large measure, to the system of education with which the people have been favoured through nearly (wo generations. There may be, and doubtless there are, contributing factors, such ns the stock from which we have sprung, the climate, and mu isolation but. without a thoroughly efficient education system, the other factors would have carried us. as a people, to our present position. It is not without .significance., therefore. that (be onlv section of our community which persistently villifies ami denounces our system of education is the Roman Catholic. Dr. Redwood, the chief ecclesiastic of that Church, speaking in Wellington recently, derided the system, and prophesied that “it will be the ruin of New Zealand.” Dr. Cleary, the Bishop of that Church in Auckland alleges that it works injustice, whilst another ecclesiastic of the same communion. pronounced “that our schools turned out thieves, liars, blackguards, and rogues.” We are treated 1o these tirades at regular intervals, but they are most plentiful at this time of the vear when school breaking-up ceremonies take place. The Boman Catholics occupy a plai-i of exceptional privilege in (hi.- IThey, have concessions which no other church enjoys—and to which they are not entitled. The decision in the ro. cent Cambridge appeal has the effect n exempting not- only the schools of that Church, but the houses in which their teachers live, from rates, is an example In other countries, rapidly developing opinion is that sectarian schools are undesirable on national grounds. In Mexico. France, and Italy, to mention only three countries, they have been abolished. In the United States of America a strong movement is on foot to close the parochial school, and in-New Zealand ' there is the beginning of a strong movement to declare that it i: necessary, in the interests of the State and as an antidote to (he strong sectarianism of Church schools, that all primary education shall be brought under the control of the State. Dr. Cleary claims that ihe Roman Catholic schools save the Treasury about. £240.000 annually. Thev do nothing the sort: on a generous estimate by competent persons, the expenditure of one-tenth of that amount would enable the Education Department to acconuuo . date and educate the whole of the ehildern now attending sectarian primary schools. The gain to the Stair by abolishing sectarian schools would tie enormous. The expensive overlappim which now is taking place would ' ended. The results educationally w.ov' be improved, especially through (1tuition of the children at present isectarian schools and in onr Stale schools. It can be shown conclusive''’ that the aver-’ge result's educational!' - attained in the sectarian schools arevastly below those of the average State school. The gain attaching to the mingling of the children of al] cl'isw and creeds in the common life of tin school would be incalculable in pro moting national unity and in allayin'the constant conflict which, in the nan” of religion, (ho Roman Catholic Church maintains, and for which ihe sectarian s.r-I'ool is tiro training ground. The two clergymen named Drs. Red • wood and Cleary threaten to press Parliament claims for State n ; d for t l '-'- schools; that claim has not the merit" o' ’ustice, and is never lil-elv to be Granted "nt Hie other claim—that the schools o'' Rome shall he placed on an oqualilv with the other private school*;, am 1 forced to p-?v rates, wit) he pressed the. claim that ■ onr State seconder'vhnols should 'ie ilmirived of scholar ships in order to afford seliolarshins <c “o’-'an Catholic s'diools is not likelv C be listened to with sympathy, hut tlm l-.nia"d that al) nrirnavv educatin'' shonld lie liio'mbt ni’d-'r the direct control of .the Slate wHI command morn ■iml more suppn” 1 —xbmvs etc. HOW \RD ETJJOTT. W.dlinaton. December 15. 1926.