Two Schools or One?

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 154, 26 March 1931, Page 11

Two Schools or One?

A Masterton Problem For some time past considerable discussion has taken place in Masterton over the question of amalgamating the High School and Technical School into one institution of the composite type. This proposal has met with considerable criticism, to which Mr. N. A. Barrer, a member of the Wairarapa Secondary Education Board, replies, in a letter to the editor, as follows:—■ “I would ask those who are really in earnest in seeking the best in education to weigh icarefully the following facts: — “1. The growth of population in a district of .which the borough has increased by only .05 per cent., and the county by 1 per cent, in seven years, is not sufficient to allow of either High School or Technical School being developed to its fullest capacity for many years to come. Only by consolidation, with a correspondingly increased roll number, can we get the necessary specialised teaching in each branch of education whether (so-called) ‘academic’ or ‘technical.’ 2. Under the present system there is far too much overlapping, the subjects taught at both schools being substantially the same. 3. Increase of efficiency would also be an economical measure for the public purse. Obviously, by pooling the resources of both schools —whose joint roll number of day pupils averages only about 400— classrooms, assembly halls, science laboratories, workshops, sports grounds, swimming bath, etc., we should tremendously reduce overhead expenses. 4. It is a misstatement —to put it mildly—to say that amalgamation means the smothering of the technical side of education. Such education would merely be placed in a better setting, and given a wider opportunity and larger field. 5. The Feilding Agricultural High School is a combined High School and Technical School, with an agricultural bias, functioning in all these capacities without jealousy between them or any loss of efficiency. Might I ask those of the critics, who really wish to do their best for the children of both schools, to make full inquiries re this school before condemning a system of which they have no knowledge. 6. Short-course pupils would be fully catered for. Also, there would be no interference with Hie functions of night classes. In Feildiug those members of the staff who teach at night have a corresponding free period iu the daytime. It is merely a matter of organisation. 7. A member of the Trust Lands Trust points out —what we have stressed for years—the need for a playground for the Technical School, and proposes, rather than share, the 30 acres belonging to the High School, with its five football fields, to place a new Technical School on a section which admittedly does not provide space for a single football ground. He urges co-operation, but. advocates competition. This is the spirit which kept Masterton without an adequate secondary school for a generation, and now would mar the progress of education toward a modern idea). “The public has seen how —against the same kind' of opposition—the principle of consolidation of primary schools was carried into effect, to the marked benefit of the small schools concerned. Surely it has learned something thereby. “If those members of the Trust Lands Trust who advocate it, persist in their present policy of the duplication of buildings, grounds, and equipment, it is time that the public should examine facts for themselves, and insist on economy and efficiency in the handling of so valuable an educational endowment.”