SCHOOL BY POST

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 8, 9 July 1935, Page 5

SCHOOL BY POST

WONDERFUL WORK

EDUCATION FOE ALL

TRIUMPH OF ORGANISATION

Like the many (lowers born to blush unseen, there is many an organisation which carries out work of very great importance and interest without having, or seeking to have, the limeliglit thrown upon its activities. Amongst these may,be cited the Correspondence School conducted by the Education Department. The idea of conducting a correspondence school for the purpose of providing education for children who, from one cause or another, are debarred from utilising the normal educational facilities first became a practical project in 1022. Then, one single teacher housed in the Government Buildings was able to do all the work. The work soon expanded, however; a larger staff was necessary, and a move was madejto The Terrace. Today, thirteen years after the scheme's inception, just on 2000 children are dealt with by correspondence, requiring a highlyqualified staff of 59, and the buildings formerly occupied by the Training College in Kelburn are none too commodious for the work. This method of providing tuition by correspondence was in 1922 something entirely new for New Zealand, and a new technique had to be formulated. As the correspondence school grew, so did the technique. It started with the primary section, anff from this within six years there naturally grew the secondary section, until the whole scheme, once somewhat of a Cinderella, has become something of which the Department, is justly proud, and New Zealanders, too, as a whole, if they knew more about it, would be just as proud as the Department. ,A brief summary of the correspondence school's activities last year is given in the last annual report of the Minister of Education. Like other official reports, it is informative, but leaves entirely to the imagination what goes on behind the scenes.. But part of this report is here quoted as it summarises the school's work and activities. "The subjects of instruction," says the report, "include in the primary department all of the: subjects of the syllabus prescribed for the public schools, with the exception of physical drill and singing; and in the secondary department, English, history, and civics, geography, Latin, French, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, agriculture, and general science, home science, bookkeeping, drawing, hygiene, and needlecraft, to university entrance examination or school certificate standard. .'' "The correspondence school. is regularly inspected by the Department's primary and: secondary inspectors, whose reports show that the standard of education attained by the pupils compares favourably with that of public schools. Although the' success of a school cannot wholly be gauged from examination results, the correspondence school, judged from that standard alone, has fully justified its existence. Through its agency over 300 pupils have qualified for junior free places in» post-primary schools since the first candidates were presented for the proficiency certificate examination ten years ago. In 1933 fifty-three gained proficiency certificates, twenty-five were awarded intermediate certificates, and six passed the university entrance examination. "Much has been done to provide for the pupils of the correspondence school the' %"xtra dlassf-room activities-of ordiri-. ary school life.. Three 'companies of Girl Guides and two'troops of. Boy Scouts "have been organised, besides a number, of clubs and societies, for those interested in philately, photography, meccano, native bird and plant life, and overseas pen friendships. The school also possesses a carefullyselected and graded circulating library of. over two thousand books, and publishes an annual magazine, "The Postman,' which consists chiefly of contributions from the pupils in verse, prose, sketches, and photography." ■ THOSE WHO BENEFIT. Before amplifying the official bald statement with interesting details gleaned from a personal visit to headquarters and a chat with the headmaster, Dr. A. G. Butchers, it maybe, as well to explain who are the lucky children —for in many respects they are lucky—who receive their education by post in this novel way. They are children who are excluded by physical 1 disability from attending school (infantile paralysis sufferers are amongst these), and children whose parents reside at such distances from a school that attendance on the part of the youngsters is out of the question. Distance and remoteness in the backblocks, or physical disability, are'not the only qualifications for participation in postal tuition. In a few instances it may be that a dangerous and unbridged river separates a* home from a comparatively handy school, and in this case the danger attendant upon a walk or a ride to the school is the reason why the child is allowed to take advantage of postal tuition. But the Department is very strict in its enforcement of the rule that school shall be attended wherever possible, and all those who are ineligible are rigorously excluded from the postal system. Roughly speaking, it may be said that the correspondence school's pupils are derived from the children of parents who live away in the backblocks, far from the amenities of civilisation; from lighthouses and similar inaccessible spots, and from the Chatham Islands, there is no provision for secondary education, although .•primary, education .is obtainable. Added to these are certain city children .who,,.from one cause or another, cannot attend school' in' the ordinary course of events. It is distinctly to New Zealand's credit that such widespread provision is made. New Zealand has been" very generous in providing household schools, itinerant teachers, and a correspondence ' school to ensure that wherever possible every child shall have a chance of a good education. ALL SUBJECTS BY POST. How a thorough education, embracing all the subjects usually taught in primary and secondary schools—including such subjects as needlework and science—can be adequately taught by post must naturally be a source of wonder and a bit of a mystery. That all subjects are taught thoroughly is proved by the results obtained, and to solve the mystery a personal visit to the correspondence school's headquarters is really necessary. From such a visit one comes away full of admiration for tlie system, which is as ingenious as it is elaborate. Once a child has been enrolled as a pupil of the correspondence school, the whole of the subsequent proceedings move like clockwork with the necessary adjustments for individual cases. Three sets of lessons in all the subjects to be taken are sent out in patent twoway envelopes. At the end of a fortnight the first set of lessons is returned to headquarters to be corrected, and the fourth set goes out, and so on. This ensures that the pupil is never left waiting for some work, to go on with: there is always something in hand. Together with helpful criticisms and advice, the child also receives model answers. In the primary classes one teacher takes all subjects, and between .teacher and child there]

is built up, by interchange of friendly letters in addition to the lessons themselves, a close personal contact—a real friendship. The child by this method of tuition realises itself as an individual in whom its teacher takes a live personal interest, a highly desirable state of affairs not always realisable in ordinary school work, when a child is merely one of a class of forty or fifty. In the secondary department all the work is entrusted to expert teachers, specialists in their'own subjects, and the same teacher carries on with each pupil right through. For instance, if Mr. Jones starts Johnny Smith off in mathematics, Johnny never has anyone else than Mr. Jones to teach him that subject. " Throughout the whole system there is no cramming, no effort to fit into three years: what takes four years to learn thoroughly. . By their very isolation the children must make greater efforts to overcome difficulties than would be the case if a teacher was handy to whom they could refer, which is all to the good. There is no steoreotyped work—it is all individual tuition. And the proof of the pudding is in the eating: children who have received their education through the correspondence school quite hold their own when circumstances make it possible to attend school or when they sit for examinations. It may quite legitimately be wondered how it is possible to teach practical science, agricultural and otherwise, by post. But it is done. Simple apparatus is provided at first with the postal instructions, ■ and as the pupil progresses rather more advanced apparatus. It is, of course, impossible to conduct courses in science requiring experience or delicate apparatus "or dangerous chemicals. Once a year, in vacation time, in some convenient centre, an endeavour is made to collect together as. many correspondence school pupils as possible for an intensive practical course, and in this way unavoidable deficiences in the postal course are rectified. WHERE ORGANISATION TELLS. The interior of the .correspondence school itself is a 'busy hive of industry, with the staff correcting work, formulating model answers, sending out lessons, cutting stencils for the drawings which accompany so much of the work, and doing a thousand and one other things. Pigeon-holes and records play a large part in the organisation. At a moment's notice every single- pupil's progress can be ascertained', or hands placed on a lesson course required fov a particular- purpose. Everything is kept up to date, lessons and records, the keynote of individuality in the teaching running throughout. ; As may well be imagined, the question of providing books, school books and library books, school material, etc., is a big one. Here again organisation is triumphant. The correspondence school's trade in , books reaches an annual total of about £1500. This alone necessitates much postal packing, and in addition there is the sending out of cases of apparatus for*l science work ■ and ' the like. By the hearty co-operation of the Post and Telegraph Department the work of the correspondence school has been made very much lighter than it would be otherwise. But it is by no means all lessons that the correspondence school deals with. In the Minister's report quoted above will be seen the numerous activities that are organised—all by- post. The layman may' be excused for thinking that the school's staff must include a goodly number of supermen and superwomen. • THE PARENTS' PART. . In • the whole scheme the • parents must play a prominent part. In the early primary stages of the pupil's career obviously, they have to assist considerably, -but as the pupil progresses less and-:less'demand is made upon the parents'' time. Parents do co-operate whole-heartedly with the correspondence school and its work: they welcome the chance given to educate their children and incident•ally to keep them out of mischief. Perhaps not a few parents manage to learn something themselves, and, with the omission of names, it will be no breach of confidence to give but one instance. The correspondence school teaches needlework to between six and seven hundred girls—an amazingly difficult thing to do, but it is done and very effectively too, as is shown by the samples of work sent back. The mother of one girl thus taught, who confesses to never having learnt, needlework properly when she was a girl owing to the plethora of cows that needed milking, was enabled to profit to such an extent by the postal course in needlework that her girl was . receiving that she could go to a neighbouring school, where there was a man as sole teacher, and take classes in needlework for the girls in that school. For pioneer work undertaken by any Education Department in any country, it would be hard to equal that achieved by the New Zealand Education Department's correspondence- school. • It is expanding its activities every year, but not at the expense of ordinary school attendance, and it is obviously filling a much-needed want. Future generations, even if the present one does not, will realise the debt that the country owes to it.