POLITICAL PUFFS AND EDUCATION

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 61, 15 March 1924, Page 13

POLITICAL PUFFS AND EDUCATION

10 IHB EDITOR. Sir, —My brief letter was a protest against the exploitation of education for political purposes, a protest, I am sure, that has the enthusiastic support of all those really interested in the welfare of education in New Zealand. Any criticism of the- Department was incidental to that protest. - " The Department apparently agrees with that protest, for, as Dr. Marsden (for the Director of Education) very rightly says : "It is surely necessary to keep 'politics' entirely out of educational technicalities." That being agreed upon, we may, I trust, hope that we have seen the last of the political puffs which have been so numerous of late. Surely Dr. Marsden does not really expect the public to believe that the article in question was merely a reporter's account of his visit to the Technical College when the tests were given there. The public are not so ignorant as to believe that. So much for the political aspect of the question. As the Department has now officially raised the question of the tests, perhaps the time is opportune for. the further enlightenment of the public, which, after all, are most vitally interested in this matter. The public will have a much more intelligent idea of this important subject if the Department will tell them : (1) The name of the expert under whose supervision the tests are being conducted. (2) Whether the tests are group tests or individual tests? (3) Who give the tests? (4) Who score the tests? (5) Whether the expert approved of the Ministerial party and reporter being present when the tests were taken at the Technical College?—l am, etc., EDUCATION. . [In fairness to Dr. Marsden we may state that the article published in the "Evening Post" was written by our reporter following on a visit to the Technical School, and sp a result of inquiries made by him.—Ed.]