UNIFICATION OF SCHOOLS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22316, 29 April 1947, Page 4

UNIFICATION OF SCHOOLS

Sir, —I was very pleased to read in your paper the farewell message by one of the Rarotongan teachers, and I sincerely hope that Mr. G. Brown, one ot the members of the Hawke’s Bay Education Board, will read, study and test the message himself by taking a run up the Coast and calling on any native school he chooses, when he will be received by the teachers with open arms, the children’s smiling faces, in and upon beautifully-kept buildings and grounds. When Mr. Brown has done this he will realise the wrongness of the notice of motion proposed by him recently. The following words seem to apply, “Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye and considered not the beam that is in thine own- eye.” PUBLIC SCHOOL MAORI PARENT.

Sir, —I was interested to read the discussion by the Hawke’s Bay Education Board at its last meeting as to whether the native schools system be abolished and all public schools be brought under the Education Board system. The board decided to defer the matter for six months. Mr. G. Brown sponsored the move that all schools be controlled by the boards, but no good reasons were advanced to justify the step except that the two separate systems would tend to create division amongst the children. There is a misunderstanding amongst the people as to the two kinds of schools, viz., public or board and native schools. Both are public schools, open to any child; the only difference is in the administration. Native schools are diiectly under the control of the Education Department, whereas the public schools are democratically administered. Far more Maori children are taught in board schools than in native schools. This fact in itself is sufficient to knock the bottom out of the native school system. There is no need now for the system with its overlapping and unnecessary costs. After all, the most important matter is whether -Maori children are better taught in the native schools than they are in the public schools. It is admitted that a board school is a standard higher than a native school. It is also claimed for the board system that the discipline and administration are stricter. A board school teacher has to stick to the timetable whereas a native school teacher docs pretty well what he likes. The reason for this is because a public school committee has some power and a native school committee has not. One duty of a native school committee is to supply firewood, but even that is often done by the children and that during school hours. The Education Department has been accused of experimenting with some new ideas on native schools until tile native school syllabus is overloaded. The native schools system is so undemocratic that educated Maoris are not taken into confidence in drawing up of the syllabus. _ DEMOCRACY.