DISTURBING FEATURE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20618, 20 November 1941, Page 7

DISTURBING FEATURE

PUPILS LEAVING SCHOOL MANY GO TOO YOUNG SCHOOL RECTOR’S ADVICE While many pupils could quite well leave High School immediately, many others left at too young an age, and this was referred to as a disturbing feature when the rector of the Gisborne High School, Mr. J. Hutton, presented a report on the matter at yesterday afternoon’s meeting of the board of governors. "The placement of pupils in positions continues at a very rapid rate,” Mr. Hutton states. “Over 100 pupils have been placed since the beginning of the year. That is to be expected in these times, when young people are replacing those who are relieving the men on service. "One disturbing feature, however, is that the pupils leaving are not confined to senior pupils, but are spread over the school and include too many junior pupils. Even first-year pupils have left this year to a greater extent than is usual. “There is no need for this. The community is just becoming to recruit at a better level than it did, and it is contrary to the public interest, as well as the interest of the pupils themselves, that any should fail to complete two years’ post-primary work as a minimum. “It may be that when parents are so often told of vacancies they tend to rush matters, but they can be assured that the demands of the future will be even more exacting than the demands of the present, and the pupil who is well prepared will be in the best position. “There are, of course, many pupils who could quite well leave school immediately, since they have already reached an age which makes entry into business life reasonable. Incidentally, I have discovered that some employers in skilled trades are under a definite misapprehension. Where a contract of apprenticeship exists the rates of wages appropriate to the year of the apprenticeship are payable. The basic wage is irrelevant to apprenticeship, so that apprenticeship might well run from 17 to 22 or 18 to 23. Very often, it would be in the employers’ interest to obtain a stronger and a better educated apprentice instead of a younger boy who has never had an industrial course as a preliminary. Usually boys are available at 16, but the older apprentices would he more profitable than boys fresh from primary schools.” Mr. E. J. Poswillo said there was a higher wage for the boy of 18 than one younger under apprenticeship, but the older boy was the more valuable.