A LONG VIEW IN EDUCATION

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 141, 11 December 1935, Page 10

A LONG VIEW IN EDUCATION

Some of the defects in the present system of education and the difficulties in the way of remedy were disclosed at a gathering at the Karori School yesterday at which the new Minister of Education (Mr. P. Fraser^ made his first public address since his appointment as member of the Cabinel. After mentioning the exclusion of five-year-old children from the schools and the shortage of teachers, the chairman of the School Committee (Mr. H. L. P. Dyett), who

presided, criticised the existing system as having "too great a tendency to mould young citizens to a set pattern" so that there was "not enough original or analytical thought fostered in them" and they "left school more as units of mass production than individuals." The chairman stressed also the effect on the upkeep of schools brought about by a policy of drastic economy. The Minister made a reply which shows that he appreciates to the full the difficulties of the situation. So far as the five-year-olds were concerned, he said, the Government's pronouncement had been clear and definite. The five-year-olds were going back to the schools. Their readmission at the beginning of the next financial year was rendered more difficult by the shortage of teachers, and this raised the question of the reopening of the training college. He had great hopes of these difficulties being surmounted very speedilyi It was, however, in his reference to the general problem of education that Mr. Fraser made a statement which goes to the root of the whole matter. The ideal he considered education should aim at, he said, was well summed up in a passage from a book on education he had read only that morning:

It is the development of the personality of each" individual child, in an atmosphere of comradeship, equality, and mutual help, and in an environment which offers abundant opportunities for constructive work and open-air activity.

If this is studied carefully it will be found, as Mr. Fraser declared, to sum up .the aim of a "reasonable and well-designed system of education" in contrast with the "set pattern" and "mass production" urged against the present system by Mr. Dyett, with whose sentiments the Minister expressed cordial agreement. Taking the passage quoted as the basic idea to pursue, the Minister said he would work to that end so that "every boy and girl would have the opportunity of developing mentally, physically, and morally into the very best type of man or woman." That this is the best principle on which to proceed in developing a system of education most thinking people will agree. The trouble with education as it is in this country is that it seems to be a haphazard growth of ideas and methods borrowed from other countries without any regard to their suitability to conditions here and the end it is desired to attain. The whole system needs a thorough overhaul and remodelling. This will be a tremendous task, but one that must be' carried out if New Zealand is to get the best out of its people. Mr. Fraser is under no illusions on this point. It is a task not for one day or one year, but he is prepared to work to the end he has set before him, and in that spirit he can hope for the co-operation of all with the interests of education at heart.