SCHOOL COMMITTEES

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 50, 27 August 1937, Page 6

SCHOOL COMMITTEES

CONFERENCE REMITS

ELECTION OF OFFICERS

(By Telegraph—i'ress Association.) NEW PLYMOUTH, August 26. The business sessions of the conference of the New Zealand Federation of School Committees' Associations concluded today. Christchurch was selected as the venue of the next conference. , Officers were elected as follows: — President, Mr. R. S. H. Buchanan (Christchurch); senior vice-president, Mr. W. H. Fortune (Auckland);, junior vicepresident, Mr. A. E. Morgan (West Coast); secretary and treasurer, Mr. T. Nuttall (Canterbury); Parliamentary committee, Messrs. F. H. Porter (chairman), J. Fyfe, and E. Miller (Wellington), W. G. Black (Manawatu),and Mrs. M. Bentley (Wellington); Canterbury executive, Messrs. C. R. N. Mackie, E. Burgess, A. E. Thompson, G. H. Harrison, and E. Prebble; associate executive; Messrs. J. W. Preen (South Canterbury), J. Walker (Southland), A. E: Morgan (Westland), and , the Rev. V. Graham (Otago). A remit suggesting that the lime of daylight saving be altered so that it commenced on the first Sunday of October and ended on the last Sunday in March evoked a difference of opinion. The labour problem on iarms was advanced by country delegates as a re'aj son for shortening the daylight saving period by a month. An amendment to the effect that in country districts it should bo the prerogative of school committees to open school at 9.30 a.m. during the period of daylight saving was carried. ■ Relaxation by hospital boards for three years.of the practice of debarring from the nursing profession applicants who have received no more than a primary 'school education was strongly advocated. SIZE OF CLASSES. Among remits affirmed were tliose urging that the size of classes be limited to 35, that the Education Department be urged to undertake a system of, modernising furniture and equipment in primary schools, that, the, appointment' of teachers be made as from the beginning of each school year, that the Government be urged to revert to the original system of free dental treatment, that travelling dental clinics be provided in country districts, and that kindergarten classes be established wherever there are sufficient children to form such classes. ; .-•The conference supported a remit from the West Coast, "That the school leaving certificate be adopted as a standard of' attainment for entrance to the Public Service and all other professions where a university degree is not' a necessity." It was" contended that if a board of inspectors of the Education Department, were to set examination papers for the certificate it would obviate the high fee charged by the university authorities and the requirements of a .majority of pupils receiving secondary education would be met. The conference adopted an Auckland remit .suggesting, that swimming instruction be included in the school curriculum and that where possible practical instructon be given in life-saving and artificial respiration. Where facilities^ were not available, land drill should be given. The. conference whole-heartedly supported the movement for the introduction of visual education into primary sbhools. It was decided to ask !the Education Department to consider making provision for suitable instructions by.wireless. Greater attention, it wa3 considered, should be given in' all schools to the teaching of oral English.