PRIMARY SCHOOL SYLLABUS

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 149, 23 March 1928, Page 10

PRIMARY SCHOOL SYLLABUS

BIG CHANGES PROPOSED STATEMENT BY DIRECTOR Dominion Special Service. Auckland, March 22. Substantial changes in the present primary school syllabus will be brought into operation in New Zealand next year, according to Mr. T. B. Strong, Director of Education, who is at present visiting Auckland. This will necessarily mean the purchase of new books by parents, and Mr. S rong issues a warning to parents not to incur unwarranted expense this year bv buying text books which might become unnecessary, Mr. Strong said it was generally realised that the present system, which had been in operation for several years, needed modernising. The proposed new syllabus had recently been drafted by the primary school syllabus committee and this had been considered by school inspectors in conference. The original report and modifications proposed by inspectors had yet to be considered by the director himself, and later by the Minister of Education. Nothing had so far been made public regarding the proposed changes, Mr. Strong said, but he understood that next month copies of the proposed syllabus would be sent to all teachers, who would then have an opportunity of considering the changes. “There is absolutely no necessity fm new books in primary schools this year. I think parents should know this,” continued Mr. Strong. Referring to the warning recently given by the Education Department to the Auckland Education Board that there had been a number of unauthorised books distributed this year, the Director explained that the Department did not wish to involve parents in unnecessary expense. There had oeen -o authorised change made in the syllabus, but some teachers had realised one was coming and had “jumped too soon.” Department was making all preparations for the new syllabus by warning publishers not to print any more than necessary of the old books.