FOUNDATION FIRST

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 110, 11 May 1934, Page 5

FOUNDATION FIRST

PLEA FOR PRIMARY

SCHOOLS

"SECONDARIES ONLY SUPERSTRUCTURE"

Criticism of the remarks made by the Director of Education (Mr. N. T. Lambourne) concerning the respective merits of teachers in the primary and intermediate schools, was made by Mr. W. C. Colee at last night's session of the conference of the New Zealand Educational Institute. Mr. Colee quoted Mr. Lambourne's remarks from the "Evening Post."

"It is an amazing statement for the gentleman to make," declared Mr. Colee. "In the primary schools we have got to maintain an average attendance for a year before we get any further staff. According to E. Eeport, 1932, there are over 2000 primary school | classes with from 40 to 70 children per teacher. The Director points out that intermediate schools are more efficiently and generously staffed. That is certainly so. "I feel we are here in the interests of the child, and in the primary school we are doing work of no less vital import than in the post-primary school. Children there are of the most impressionable age, when they f(/m habits for good or ill. The remarks of the Director only show that primary school children are being handled under inferior conditions, so that their teachers cannot give them the chance they deserve. "The Department seems to be looking largely at tho superstructure rather than foundations. I say no sound system can be built up if. there's a neglect ,of the foundation—even if a largo amount of money is spent upon the .superstructure. For many children, the primary schools present the only chance of education they will get." (Hear hear.) Mr.'Colee moved "that there be no differentiation in the treatment of the primary and post-primary schools." The motion was carried unanimously. The seconder maintained that every pound extra spent upon post-primary schools had to be filched from the primary schools. There had been a strong change-over from the primary schools to the post-primary schools, ft was the teacher's duty to see that the child's primary- education was thoroughly and well laid down.