NEW SCHOOLS

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 145, 16 December 1933, Page 14

NEW SCHOOLS

INTERMEDIATE TYPE

COMMENT AT PRIZE-GIVING

"PLAYING WITH SYSTEM"

Intermediate schools, or schools with intermediate'or "trying-out" departments, of which Bongotai College is one, were the subject of special ment both by tho principal (Mr. F. Martyn Kcnncr) and Sir James Parr, a former Minister of Education, at tho college breaking-up ceremony yesterday afternoon. Sir James, who said that in a measure he- was responsible for this now type of school, and was keenly interested in it, paid a tribute td Mr. Renner, the staff, and the boys on the success they had achieved in the face of great difficulties. Ho said that the proper facilities were lacking at Bongotai, and expressed the view that it vould be better not to have interniedi\te schools if they were not properly ,quipped and were without a specialised staff. GREAT RESPONSIBILITY. "Tour board is aware of the recentlyissued regulations affecting ..this and similar schools," said Mr. Eenner. "I do not at this stage desire to comment at any gront length on how these regulations will affect us. Suffice it to say that the headmasters and their staff of intermediate schools or departments have an exceedingly responsible job to jo—more responsible than any other form of education. For the proper carrying out of that work adequate equipment and accommodation and staffing must be provided. Six years' experience with work of the intermediate type convinces me that unless a, school of the type under discussion is fully provided with the three essentials named, the work cannot be satisfactorily done, and it should not be demanded until the essentials can be provided. Take the case of staffing. At the beginning of next year I stand to lose three of the masters of my intermediate- department because they must be replaced by teachers of a lower grade. It seems to me anomalous that an intermediate school should by regulations be staffed by teachers of lower qualifications than those we have at present, while at the same time they should be specialists in certain forms of post-primary, work.1 MINISTER'S POWERS. ' "Yet another matter that I have more than once referred to. The regulations give the Minister power to designate certain schools in any area, and demand that all children above the fourth standard should be sent to an intermediate school. I should be sorry to see this done. We have tried it in the past, and it has resulted in nothing but bitterness and heartburning on tho part of the schools so affected, and has not benefited Eongotai College. Fifty per cent, of.the children thus compelled to enter Eongotai College left as'soon as they had gained their proficiency certificates. The school- had no time to impress its traditions and general culture upon boys who did not want to attend or whose parents did not want them to come. For the past four years the voluntary system of entry has been tried; but here again I am not satisfied, for the Teason that unless all boys whoso parents desire them to attend, enrol as soon as the fourth standard is passed, we have our whole co-ordinated system of instruction upset by boys who enter a year, or even two years, later, that is, not /vfhen they.haye passed the fourth standi«ird, but when they have passed the fifth standard or gained - their proficiency certificate. Such boys are. not only: a disturbing element in the orderly and systematic working of our curriculum, but they are in spite of good innate ability definitely handicapped by the lack of a year or a two years' course in such subjects as French, Latin, mathematics,' and science. ■ "PLAYING WITH SYSTEM." "Seeing therefore that partial compulsion has failed, and that voluntary entry considerably disturbs the course of school work, it seems to me that there is only one solution —the provision of four more classrooms at Bongotai College. If the laboratories are provided and four more classrooms added, we can take all boys above the. fourth standard from all the neighbouring schools. The cost will not be excessive, and we should have in this eastern area at least a homogeneous form of education and a means of trying out the working of the intermediate department system in its entirety. At present we are only playing with the system. We are not giving either the system a fair chance nor are we fair to all. boys in attendance at the contiguous schools." SUCCESS UNDER DIFFICULTIES. \Sir James Parr, who was the chief guest and distributed the prizes, said he was deeply interested in the new intermediate schools, of which Eongotai was one. He complimented tljus, headmaster and staff and the pupils upon their success in the face of grave difficulties. This school was a trying-out school for boys after twelve years, but it lacked, the essentials of this sort of school. There were no laboratories worth -ivhile, while the equipment for woodwork and metalwork was quite inadequate. Yet no trying-out school could do without these things wherewith to test the manual capacities of the pupil. They were the essence of the matter. Of course, this meant expense; but it would be better not to have intermediate schools at all than to have them without proper equipment and a specialised staff at a fair salary. Morepver, the school was on a voluntary basis—a boy could leave the primary school and come there just as he pleased. This meant confusion and disorganisation. He agreed with Mr. Eenner that it should be compulsory, as everywhere else, for boys at twelve to come to the intermediate school. But another difficulty then presented itself. Many parents would rightly object to sending their children to the intermediate school, because these children after two years' stay there were not in a position financially to go on for another three years' course at a high school or a technical school. : TWO TYPES OF SCHOOL. Eventually, he thought, the Department would find two types of school necessary, tho two-year intermediate school for long-term pupils and a central school at which the boys' education would end at fourteen or fifteen years. The same institution could not accomplish both purposes satisfactorily. Until post-primary education was put on a proper footing, it would be wiser to delay spending money ■ on intermediate schools. He thought Bongotai under grave difficulties was doing good work. The question of post-primary education might well be referred to the Committee of Eesearch which would be set up in this country soon under the Carnegie Foundation.