EDUCATION IN NEW ZEALAND

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 242, 9 July 1938, Page 10

EDUCATION IN NEW ZEALAND

Comparison With Overseas

NEED FOR UNIFICATION

OF CONTROL

Dominion Special Service.

Auckland, July 8.

‘•New Zealand has nothing to compare with the best in education over•ea« but we have nothing as bad as n>ewS” stated Mr G. R. general secretary to the New Zealand Educational Institute, "’ho returned by the Monterey to-day after an ab sence of 12 months in Europe, Canada and the United States. He added that educationists overseas found it diffi cult to understand why the Dominion with its centralised administrative: sy stem was slow in moving forward toward unification of the con rol ot the primary, secondary, and technical sjsteins, which should never have been allowed to get so far out of step with one another. __ . , Mr. Ashbridge said the New svstem could be simplified considerably when unification was effected. In the United States and Canada the teachers all belonged to one organisation, as was the case in the Dominion when the New Zealand Educational Institute was established iu 1883. Teachers’ organisations throughout the world were unanimous that classes should be reduced to 30. Iu Toronto, Canada, kindergarten classes were limited to that number, an innovation that would doubtless be greatly appreciated by infant mistresses in New Zealand. , , “The purchasing of school supplies is an important function of school boards overseas,” Mr. Ashbridge continued “In Toronto the education board operates a centralised purchasing department which delivers supplies to the schools in its own trucks. The system of free text books, school and class libraries for children, typewriters and duplicators, and clerical assistance provided for head teachers at overseas schools leaves the New Zealand system with considerable leeway to make up if it is to be considered among the best iu the world. These are but the tools of trade and their early provision would be a sensible step in the direction of securing greater efficiency in teaching. "Nevertheless, I must say that the method of educating rural children in this country eclipses anything I saw in the United States,’! he added. The salaries paid to New Zealand teachers were generally lower than those paid to teachers in England, Canada and the United States. This was true particularly of headmasters, and commencing salaries at the lower end of the scale.

American teachers were required to show the authorities each year that they had spent a minimum of 30 hours iu study of an approved kind to enhance their ability as teachers. In New York the authorities had adopted the standard of "efficient” or "not efficient” as was done iu England. With unification of control and a different salary scale, it should be possible to classify teachers in New Zealand on a simpler 'basis.