EDUCATION IDEALS.

Evening Star, Issue 22212, 14 December 1935, Page 14

EDUCATION IDEALS.

Two new Ministers, Mr Fraser and Mr Nash, have been talking about educsvtion. They will both bo very 'directly concerned with the subject, because Mr Fraser, who will have charge of the portfolio, has admitted that his power to make reforms which ho would like to see made in tho system must be dependent on finance, and Mr Nash is the Financial Minister. '“.There is no necromancy about money,” says Mr Fraser. “ You cannot wave your arms and spirit it out of the skies. The wealth available depends upon . the prosperity of the country and upon the goods and services produced [and, he might have added, the prices those will bring in overseas markets.] We cannot get away from that.” Incidentally it will bo a great disappointment to many who supported Labour in the recent elections that Mr Fraser should now express this view. It might have been supposed, from the cheerful way in which its candidates then dismissed financial difficulties standing in the way of an ideal life for all, that the “ right use of the national credit and currency ” would easily provide for such a little thing as an extension of educational opportunities. The Douglas Creditors, to whom Labour owes an appreciable debt for preparing the atmosphere for its financial promises, should be most aggrieved at the suggestion that money, or the equivalent of money, cannot be produced by waving one’s arms, or. by some trick coming as near to necromancy. But though we should prefer, if we could do so, to accept the more roseate view, we can only feel relieved that Mr Fraser, as a responsible Minister, rejects such romanticism.

At least tlie new Minister of Education is impressed with the importance of his charge. With' his desire of putting the physique of the child first no one will disagree. If . the Government of which he is a member, in pursuit of that plan, can find more money for the improvement of school playgrounds, especially in cities, it will do good work, though that is not to say that this object has been forgotten in the past. A great many school playgrounds have been improved by tHe generosity shown by householders in providing funds, and it is well' that, within limits, this capacity for self-help should be drawn' upon. It was Mr Nash who had most to say in detail about education. He would like to see the compulsory school age raised from fourteen years to sixteen, and every educationist would agree with him in that. Fifteen years ago an amendment to the law was made, to be brought into force by Order in Council, to raise it to fifteen years, but material factors, including the, depression, intervened, and the amendment has not yet been made operative. The Atmore Commisison, of which Mr Fraser was a member, recommended that the age should be raised to fifteen years, with provision for exemption in cases of hardship. Mr Nash believes that, if the age is raised, a greater amount of, time should be devoted “to general subjects, to artistic subjects, and to those things which would help them to live and to enjoy more, of what the world had to offer them.” We are entirely with him. The curse of- our education system today is the extent to which it has been subordinated to commercial object, before all others, of getting a job, and, after that, no more education. So a university life is crammed into.a few rushed years when, ideally, it should be spread, less as a toil than a pleasure, over perhaps forty years. The university would be a joy then for one’s leisure hours. But that state of things is still far off. Even -Mr Nash admits that his smaller plans must wait for a reorganising of (the system. And when those have been provided for there will remain still a proportion of perverse youth who will not, find their fuller life in any extension of the school period', though they may find .it very usefully away from school.