EDUCATION SYSTEM CRITICISED

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 33, 2 November 1934, Page 13

EDUCATION SYSTEM CRITICISED

Commercial Man’s View INSUFFICIENT TRAINING ON GENERAL LINES By Telegraph.—Press Association. Christchurch, November 1. The- present system of national education in New Zealand was criticised by Air. A. JI. Seaman, president of the Associated Chambers of Commerce of New Zealand, in an address at the annual conference of chambers to-day. Mr. Seaman said that the training given young jieople in New Zealand primary and secondary schools was faulty in that the examination system had become too much of a fetish and had given a deadening effect to teaching, and because of the tendency to specialise on "useful” subjects at the expense of training on general lines which would allow original thought and initiative. Mr. Seaman suggested that universal, free education should finish at the primary school stage; that a generous sys tern of scholarships should replace the present free place system, and that a similar policy should be adopted for entrance to the university, and that senseless competition among educational institutions should be eliminated. It was absurd, be argued, that secondary schools should attempt technical training, and that technical schools should have academic classes. A modification of the system, he argued, would benefit the community and relieve the public purse,