A VITAL PkOBLEM

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 23, 28 January 1928, Page 8

A VITAL PkOBLEM

TEEND OF EDUCATION (To the Editor.) Sir,—l trust that you and your readers will not allow the discussion of the trend of education in New Zealand, initiated by Mr. Vile and carried on by "Retired Teacher," and others, to drop before some clear expression of general public opinion has been obtained. There is surely no more vital problem to this country than the future of our young people, and ample evidence has been produced during the past year or so to justify the anxiety of parents as to what is to become of' their children after the sacrifices both have made for the Bake of what is known as "higher education." The problem is not only vital, but vast, and it cannot be solved by a mere attack on the cost of education into which Mr. Vile unfortunately seems to be side-tracked. It will do no real good to upbraid teachers with receiving "excessive" salaries or to complain about the expense of new school buildings. Some twenty odd years ago the present writer taught the secondary department of a district high school in a derelict old shack hired by the Education Board of the district, because the main school was overcrowded, and all for £3 a week. There were scores of others in like case or worse. Would Mr. Vile have us go back to that? It is true that good work was done under such conditions and matric was taken in tho ordinary courso of things without the special fuss made of it to-day, but it was only a transition stage of education with the growth and development of the country outracing its equipment for the next generation. Better-paid teachers and better-built schools were necessary for better education in New Zealand. That the expectations of better education have not been realised in anything like a reasonable proportion to the money outlaid is the fault neither of the teacher nor of his school. ' One does not blame the private soldier of the rank and file for the tragic failures of the late war; one looks to the man higher up—to the leader. So it is in the tragic failure of our education. It is the men who have had control of it who must take the responsibility. New Zealand has been siiiguarly unlucky in this respect during the last twenty^ve years. There seems to have been nobody in high office, either as Minister or as- Director or in any other capacity influencing the destinies of the nation, who has had vision enough to plan and courage enough to carry into effect a system of education adapted to the true needs of the country. Instead of this we have the Now Zealand of the "matric standdard"! Let those two words cover the whole system of universal competitive examination from the time the boy or gill enters the secondary school to the day of exit from the university. Each year there is some public examination to sit for, something quite apart from ths legitimate work of the school, and these exams become competitive in the aease that with so many candidates it is necessary to limit the number of those, who may be permitted to pass. The effect on the education of our young people is simply disastrous. Examination is not education. Education would still exist, if examinations ■were entirely abolished. In the great days of scholarship in England when boys and girls in their 'teens were able to Tead and write Latin and Greek and speak modern languages, there were no examinations. Even to-day England lias no exam of a universal natufe corresponding to our Public Service and matric. They have the wisdom of long experience there and let youth learn naturally without the cramming or forcing system. The result is that Britain still produces the most highly skilled workers | and the most original thinkers in the j world. Our system iis completely de- ! structive to the originality and flexibility of mind so necesßary to cope with the new problems of a new country. India and China are about the only countries where the examination fetish is worshipped as it is here, yet nobody could wish the sisters and brothers and the sons and daughters of the men who fought in the war to become Bengaleso babus or Chinese mandarins. The salient defect of our education is undoubtedly this worship of the writton examinations, and it is from this point that those who hope for better things should start. Their investigations would probably lead to the very foundations of the system and its organisation. To go iuto that aspect now would take far too much space. This is mainly a protest against the "Matric Standard." One would like to hear what others have to say.—l am, etc., EX-PED.