FIVE-YEAR-OLDS

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 23, 28 January 1936, Page 11

FIVE-YEAR-OLDS

KEADMISSION TO SCHOOLS

FAR-REACHING EFFECTS

Experts in matters educational disagree amongst themselves just as readily as do experts in many another subject. That the best age at which a child should go to school is five years may be disputed by some authorities, and there are even to be found experts who, basing their conclusions on a deep study of child psychology, maintain that no child should be sent to school until the age of seven years has been reached. But for a long period, until the depression came along, educational authorities in New Zealand fixed upon five years as the age for admission to schools. But the last Government decreed otherwise, more from the point of view of economy than from any profound convictions about the right age for beginning school life.

The exclusion of the five-year-olds was the result of the report of the National Expenditure Commission, which, inter alia, stated: "A reduction in the numbers of pupils attending the primary schools would be one effective means of reducing the size of classes and also the cost of education, and we recommend the raising of the age of entrance to six years as was recommended by the Committee on National Expenditure in Great Britain in 1922.' The savings that would be effected during the next financial year would be as follows:—Capitation to boards, £2000; incidental expenses to school committees, £9000; total, £11,000. There would eventually be further savings due to the reduced number of trainees required." When Parliament met in 1932 this report was presented and legislation giving effect to the part quoted above was passed, taking effect in q March. 1933. At that time the number of children attending the primary schools in New Zealand was, in round figures, 250,000. Some 25,000 of these were under the age of six years. The exclusion of this number of children naturally meant that fewer teachers would be required. Allowing the generous estimate of fifty children to a teacher, 500 fewer teachers were required. If their salaries averaged £200 per annum, this meant a further t saving of £100,000, Mr. Masters on one . occasion said that it would be about £120.000. PROFESSION DISORGANISED. The comparative chaos that supervened in the teaching profession from the exclusion of five-year-olds was farreaching. Obviously fewer teachers would be required in the future, so Training Colleges were closed down. Those teachers actually thrown out of work were rationed, and,students for the teaching profession sought other avenues of employment. Those who were already in the profession found chances of promotion far removed. One effect of the exclusion of the five-year-olds was the springing up of kindergartens to which many parents, if they could afford the fees, were only too pleased to send their children who were excluded for the time being from the State schools. When children left some of the kindergartens to go to the State schools, some teachers were not altogether pleased with the results of this early education and much had to be unlearned before a start could be made with laying the foundations of a State education. TIME TO ADJUST MATTERS. Now that the five-year-olds are to be readmitted, the State system of education will gradually revert to what it was before the days' of depression and retrenchment. It is not anticipated that there will be much difficulty in finding a sufficient number of teachers to deal with this year's influx of five-year-olds, and the future supply is assured by "the reopening of the closed Training Colleges. Accommodation difficulties are bound 1o arise in some of the schools, but in a short time this will be adjusted. It will naturally be several months before a complete readjustment of the education machine can be effected. A sudden influx of a good many thousand children to the schools is no light matter to deal with suddenly, and there is every indication that a great many parents intend to take advantage of the present Government's plan to readmit the five-year-olds. In the Wellington district, for instance, at least 3000 will be' enrolled. The teaching profession as a whole seems more than pleased with the reversion to the former status, and it is anticipated that before the school year is half finished matters will be adjusted so as to be working smoothly again.