WHY?

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 149, 21 December 1921, Page 7

WHY?

SECONDARY SCHOOLS AND COM-

MERCIAL TRAINING.

In his annual report Mr. Geo. H. Uttley, Principal of Scots College, made the following1 interesting comments:— "It is an obvious fact that many boys who go through a secondary school do not intend to enter professional life. We have been able to provide for the requirements of those who will take up agricultural pursuits. But what of those who wash to enter commercial ' life? Business men tell us that boys come tothem ill-trained and unable to cope with the rudimentary requirements of business life. It seems to me, however, that when one discusses the matter with business men they find it extremely difficult to.' let us know exactly the training a boy should have before he takes \ip commercial life. A conference of business men who believe in education and educational experts is urgently needed if the complaints of the former are justified. At Scots we are particularly anxious to jcater for those boys who will take up business pursuits, ~and quite willing to introduce into the ■■curriculum, a course ori Elementary Accountancy, under the direction of a qualified accountant, but a, conversation 1 had recently with one of ouribest known New Zealand accountants convinced me that this is not what our business men require. Elementary book-keeping1 in school is condemned— perhaps rightly so—elementary accountancy is not wanted, and the teachers of our secondary schools, though willing to .meet the needs of commercial life, find it difficult to ascertain from those en■gaffed in business pursuits exactly what tliey regard as essential in the tvainiiir; of boys who are tn enter the commercial world", T must reiterate Hint n ofjitfttfenee of those ktwsted is urgently, need.. «d" J