TEACHING OF MAORI

Dominion, Volume 38, Issue 21, 19 October 1944, Page 4

TEACHING OF MAORI

School Committees’ Request A request that the matter of teaching tlie Maori language in the schools be taken up with the Education Department was placed before the Wellington Education Board yesterday in a letter from the Wellington School Committees amt Educational Association. The senior inspector. Mr. G. 11. Stubbs, said that the proposal was uot just as simple as it sounded. Boards were ni tlie process of introducing arts and crafts into the schools aud he thought it would not be possible to introduce _ Maori into the primary schools. The introduction of another language in the intermediate schools would also be difficult. He did not think the primary schools were the place for such teaching. . „ _ ~ The chairman, Mr. W. V. Dyer, said that perhaps members did not realize that one of the subjects which could be taken by training college students was Maori. On the motion of Colonel 1. B. McDonald, the board decided to advise the department. of tlie representations made by the school committees association and to urge that, as the matter was one of policy, the Government take adequate steps to preserve tlie use of the language.