SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 98, 27 April 1935, Page 13

SECONDARY SCHOOLS

TEACHERS TO CONFER

SCHOOL LEAVING AGE

Conferences of the secondary school teachers and of the technical school teachers of the Dominion will be held next month and at both an important question for consideration will be the leaving age of school children. Both bodies will be asked to virge upon the Government once more the desirability of increasing the school leaving age, and numerous other matters will come forward in the form of remits. "No great degree of progress has been made in the reorganisation of postprimary education because of the continuance of the financial depression," states the annual report of the Secondary Schools' Association. "Our schools have been much hindered by the continued drastic reductions in departmental grants, and in many instances they are finding it difficult to make ends meet. "Subsequent to the united efforts 01 the civil servants and teachers, a partial restoration of salary cuts was made by the Government, amounting, to 5 per cent, increase on the reduced salaries. Your' executive is co-op-erating with the Civil Service for a further restoration of cuts, feeling as it does that it is a vital issue to the profession that salaries should be restored to their former level, which, judged by the importance and exacting nature of the service rendered, has never-been adequate. "Candidates for the school1 certificate were, for the greater part, entered for the examination by virtue of their being candidates for entrance. The incidence of success and failure in the two examinations showed the certificate to be not so easy of attainment as some were inclined to expect, and there seems to be good reason to hope that the certificate will in time establish its prestige. To a limited degree the Public Service and some professional societies have conceded the equivalence of the certificate to university entrance, but there are still some substantial obstacles to be overcome." Concern is expressed at the state ot the grading list for teachers, and it id felt that unless something is done the effects will be most detrimental on the teachers in the secondary service. One solution Of the difficulty was the increasing of the number of secondary school pupils. The association had already adopted the policy that the school leaving age should be raised to 15 years and had urged this upon the Government without success; No educationist could feel happy that in these days children could leave school at 13 and 14 years of age, nor that 46 per cent, of children left school without any post-primary education. . Forty-four remits have been forwarded for consideration. TECHNICAL EDUCATION. The annual report to be presented to the annual conference of the New Zealand Technical School Teachers' Association states that the past year had been a year of quiet activity and considerable progress, particularly in the direction of mutual understanding and co-operation with other post-prim-ary teachers. Educational ideas were in a state of flux, and with the everchanging conditions of thought and practice, it behoved all members to maintain and, if possible, strengthen the influence of the association. The report further states that the superannuation conference, which met last year, had not been reassembled, as the question of introducing hew legislation had been shelved by the Government for the time being. However, any uneasiness over the position of the funds had been allayed by the official statement that the payment of superannuation would be guaranteed by the Government. REMITS FOR CONSIDERATION. Sixty-three remits have been prepared for consideration. One remit asks that the Minister of Education and the Minister of Employment be urged (by. deputation) to raise the school leaving age to 16, and to take, the necessary steps to modify legislation, Orders in Council, and regulations so that all young people under the age of 16 shall not be employed in industry, but shall be afforded full or part-time education. Another requests the immediate restoration of subsidies for libraries. Dealing with the school certificate, a remit reads: (a). "That professional bodies accept the school certificate as an alternative to university entrance as their requisite preliminary examination; (b) that such bodies indicate a group of subjects in the school certificate list from which a selection by the candidates may be' made, such a group being wider and more suitable than at present required for university entrance, e.g., that the New Zealand Society of Accountants should include bookkeeping, shorthand, typewriting, economics, and that a foreign language and a science be not compulsory.!'