EDUCATION PROBLEMS

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 189, 12 May 1928, Page 22

EDUCATION PROBLEMS

FETISH OF EXAMINATIONS SCHOLARSHIP SYSTEM PLEA FOR COUNTRY PUPILS “Education is one of the activities of life upon which we find people who have the least knowledge of the subject expressing themselves as dogmatically and with as much assur- , ance as those who have given their whole lives to it. .Education is about the only thing from which the country expects the best results with a minimum of expenditure.” The above opinion was expressed by Mr. F. Al. Reimer, headmaster of Rougotai Boys’ College, during a discussion upon post-primary education at the annual conference of the Secondary Schools’ Association of New Zealand yesterday. Mr. Renner said that they occasionally heard the complaint that too much was being spent upon education. He held that not enough was being spent to enable teachers with broader vision and higher conceptions of what education really meant to carry out their aims and achieve their ideals. For the year ending March 31. 1927, £3,910,241 had been spent from the public purse to build schools for and to educate 297,751 children. In other words, it cost the country £l3 3s. for each of these children, 40,000 of whom were receiving post-primary education, and 4705 a university education. The estimated national wealth of New Zealand was £907,000,000, but of that sum less than-j per cent., or more exactly, Ss. 9d. out of every £lOO of our national wealth, is spent on education. As for the teachers, primary school male assistants were paid an average salary of £3lB per annum, or £6 3s. per week; and female assistants £230 per annum, or £4 Bs. per week. In secondary schools male assistants were paid roughly £7 Bs. per week, and female assistants £5 9s. per week. No one could say that this expenditure was lavish. Baneful Effects of Examinations. One criticism of post-primary work in New Zealand, proceeded Mr. Renner, was that it lacked much cultural and aesthetic value. This was true, but much of the blame for this fell on the Government; a good deal on the University; and some of it upon the teachers. There were many teachers who would willingly widen and broaden the curriculum in order to introduce subjects of cultural and aesthetic value. But the unwillingness of the Government to increase the educational vote in order to provide the buildings and equipment for such subjects make it impossible for any forward move to be made. An even greater obstacle to the broadening of the curriculum was the domination of our secondary schools by the University examinations. Conditions had come to such a pass that the success of a school was judged almost entirely on its examination results, and that quite half the pupils entering a secondary school from the moment that they were enrolled came under the control of the University examinations. The baneful effect of the curriculum could be imagined. “We date not stray away from the beaten path of knowledge,” proceeded the speaker; “we must confine ourselves to such subjects as will fit in with the matriculation examination, and later on with the entrance scholarship examination. We dare not introduce subjects of aesthetic or cultural value for fear of jeopardising the chances of our pupils in these examinations.” . K -

University Should Not Dictate.

It was no more fair, continued Mr. Renper, that the University, by virtue of its examinations, should dictate to the primary schools, by means of examinations set by the teachers what children were to enter our schools. Public opinion was largely responsible for this state of affairs. The University was equally culpable. lhe matriculation examination was taken every year not by hundreds, but by thousands of candidates, who did not desire to and never would attend the university. Almost the sole test of educational ability of'an applicant for a position in a business firm was the matriculation examination. What was the result? Over 5300 candidates sit for a. university examination that is not a university entrance examination either in standard or in purpose. And these 5300 candidates’ work in five subjects has nil to be marked and repi-rted- on in about four or five weeks —an impossible task, not fair either to them or to the examiners. How Matters Could Be Remedied. It seemed to the speaker that this state of affairs could be ended and should be ended at once (1) by esta-lishing a proper system of accrediting; (2) by asking the Department to establish a proper leaving certificate; (3) by confining the matriculation examination to only such pupils as intend to go on to the university, and for this purpose raising the standard, which was at present too low. He would go further, and abolish the entrance scholarship examination altogether. The bursaries at present given by the Department were really of greater value to the recipients than were the university scholarships. Was it worth while, he asked, having our junior and senior national scholarship examinations? His experience was that under present conditions they did not serve any very useful purposes. In the majority of cases, the scholarships were won by pupils who could very well do without them. Take, for instance, the senior national scholarships that had of recent years been won in the Wellington Education Board district. The bulk of the winners had been boys already attending Wellington College, the children of people who in any case would have kept their boys at school, scholarship or no scholarship. In addition many of the senior national scholars were also winners of college scholarships. Every one of these boys might be regarded as having deprived a less-favour-ed pupil in one of the country district?

of the benefits and privileges of attending a good secondary school. He would prefer to see a modification of the whole system —the number of scholarships set aside for town children considerably reduced and the money thus saved utilised for increasing both the number and the value of the scholarships awarded to country children, who nt present were considerably handicapped in obtaining those educational facilities and opportunities which their abilities merit. Commercial Subjects Should be Barred. Continuing, Mr. Renner said that the introduction of purely commercial subjects into the secondary school curriculum was to be deplored, not only because they had very little if any real value, but because they stood for the very thing they wanted to keep out of the secondary schools—the materialistic aspect of education. He contended that secondary schools should be for the sole purpose of laying the foundations of a broad and liberal education, upon which later on could be erected any specialised form of knowledge. Such subjects as shorthand and bookkeeping could be readily acquired after the post-primary work was finished, and by insisting upon these subjects being taken nt a secondary school parents were depriving their ‘children of the opportunity of learning much more valuable subjects.

.“High Time We Had a Policy.”

Mr. F. Milner (Waitaki) said that in consequence of the importance of postprimarv education, the report of the syllabus committee, and the pronouncement which had been made by the Director of Education, it was the duty of the conference to give some pronouncement on the subject. “I have no confid.mce in the statement made by the Minister ot Education on the subject, as far as I enn understand it,” said Mr. Milner. “It is high time we had a policy on this important subject.” Proceeding, Mr. Milner said that the English Education Commission had decided that the proper course was for a continuance from the primary to the secondary school. “The minds of the higher authorities in this country appear to be bigoted,” continued the speaker; “it would take a charge of dynamite to shift them. I do not think the Minister has even treated us with courtesy in this matter. He seems to have been guided by three laymen on the syllabus committee. We have been treated to a lot of nauseating talk about New Zealand leading the world in education, but this is ridiculous, as we all know that we Ing far behind. It was not as if the Minister of Education had not been advised upon the matter.” Air. W. M. Stewart (Boys’ High School, Christchurch) said the conference had never formulated a scheme for the best method of training secondary school teachers. He moved that a recess committee should be set up to formulate a scheme for the training of teachers for secondary schools. The motion was carried. Mr. Milner moved: "That the association strongly endorses the finding of the majority report of the Syllabus Committee in regard to the form which postprimary education should take in New Zealand, and, in view of the overwhelming evidence in favour of the reform, calls upon the Department of Education to take immediate steps towards its realisation.”

The motion was seconded by Air. W. T. Foster, and carried unanimously. Dr. Uttley (Masterton) then moved: “That this conference views with serious concern the Education Department’s expressed intention of reverting as part of our national system of education to the antiquated and discredited system of ‘higher tops' to primary schools in spite of the fact that the best-inform-ed educational opinion both in New Zealand and abroad is opposed to such a retrograde step.” The motion was seconded by Mr. Thomas, who said that the formation of seventh standards would be a severe blow to secondary schools, and upset the policy of continuous education which was aimed nt.

The motion was carried unanimously.

An Auckland tram was making its last trip for the day, and the conductor, as it neared the city, busied himself in totalling the takings for his shift (says the “Star"). He passed a coin to a passenger and inquired, “What’s that?” “A shilling,” unhesitatingly replied the passenger, who was then requested to examine it more closely. On one side was the head of Queen Victoria, and from that view it would inevitably have been accepted as the familiar “bob.” Only on the reverse was there an indication of difference, which showed the coin to be one of some small British dependency. but even then, in the light of the electric lamps, neither its place of circulation nor its value could be deciphered. The moral of this little demonstration came from the conductor. He had to replace this coin with a shilling, for the tramways department accepts nothing in the way of extraordinary coins collected by its servants, even though their likeness to those in circulation here defies more than a casual inspection.

A mere was laid at the feet of the Rev. J. Aitken, Moderator of the General Assembly, when he recently visited, a Maori pa in the Taupo district, and inadvertently the Moderator committed a breach of Maori etiquette (says the Auckland “Star”). He merely bowed and looked pleased.' It was explained to him later that he should have grabbed the mere, chased the warrior who had laid it down, and hit the latter over the head with it, that is, provided he could catch him.

While travelling from Whangarei to the west coast about 25 years ago, Mr. J. Pullen found a greenstone axe. It was embedded under a tree, standing upright with the top just exposed. He kept it as a curio, but now, realising its historical value, may offer it to the Auckland museum (says the “New Zealand Herald”). Experts say the axe is a particularly fine piece of work. It is IGin. long and 4in. wide, and about 3in. thick. The stone is exceptionally good, being almost as hard as steel, and the axe is 81b. in weight.