VALUE OF KINDERGARTENS APPRECIATED BY GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES.

Evening Star, Issue 26185, 21 August 1947, Page 3

VALUE OF KINDERGARTENS APPRECIATED BY GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES.

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, August 19. Delegates from all but one. of' .the 11 associations throughout the . Dominion, which represent a total'of 49 kindergartens, were able to attend the 'biennial conference of the-New Zealand Free Kindergarten Union,. which.; was officially opened to-day by: Lady 1 Frey* berg, the 1 patroness of the .union. / The Minister of Education, -Mr Mason, who addressed the conference, said he agreed with Lady Freyberg on the immense importance of kindergar- v ten work and the desirability of training more teachers for it. The Government was anxious to help the movement- and develop it further. It was keenly appreciative of the ..wonderful work done by the Free Kindergarten associations, which had established splendid- standards. The l G° v " ernm ent ■would not be slow to help the needed expansion of the movement. The,G°~ vernment should increase its burden of free kindergarten aid till , at the. end of a provisional period .of five .years it should shoulder it all, said. -Mr Mason. There were now 72 kindergartens participating in Government grants, and financial assistance tp.th'em had been increasing all the time. ; _ Lady Freyberg said she had visions of training colleges and hostels for student kindergarten teachers, which, she hoped, might become a reality. She felt that many more smaller kindergartens would be more desirable . than fewer larger ones. Kindergarten teaching, Her Excellency considered just as important as any later educational, activities in the- child parties pa ted. - -'