TO REMOVE ANOMALIES

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 110, 11 May 1934, Page 13

TO REMOVE ANOMALIES

TREATMENT OF POSTPRIMARY SCHOOLS

CONFERENCE SEEKS UNIFORMITY

Anomalies and differences in the treatment of the various types of postprimary schools were discussed at some length by the New Zealand Educational Institute Conference last night. It was resolved unanimously: "That there be no differentiation in the treatment of post-primary scliools."

In comparing the district high schools with secondary schools, Mr. P. W. Campbell (North Canterbury) deplored the preferential treatment accorded to the secondary schools in the matters of staffing, salaries of teachers, capitation grants, and the provision of facilities for the teaching of the sciences. He claimed that the subject was of vital importance and required urgent consideration. One of the chief differences was in the manner of staffing the post-primary schools, which were in two main classes—those coming under the control of education boards and those under the control of boards of governors or technical boards. The numbers of staff assistants in the different schools varied, as, for instance, in the case of two schools of equal size—the one having 17 teachers and the other 21 or more. Capitation varied as much as 30s, against 7s. In district high schools, generally, sufficient money. grants were not available for. the teaching of science as required by the syllabus. Yet teachers were required to grant certificates that pupils had had a certain amount of practical science tuition.

Miss A. Finlayson, seconding the motion, said that the differences were very real and must work against the interests ,of the pupils and the teachers. Different regulations governed staffing as estimated on the roll number. The method of computing the roll was different in the schools under primary education boards from that which obtained in the secondary and technical schools, resulting sometimes in delay in the appointment of new permanent teachers.