EDUCATION STANDARDS PROVIDE POSERS FOR SCHOOL PRINCIPALS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22822, 17 December 1948, Page 3

EDUCATION STANDARDS PROVIDE POSERS FOR SCHOOL PRINCIPALS

Comment upon several aspects of the present education system was made by the headmaster of the Gisborne Intermediate School. Mr. R. McGlashen, at the annual prize giving ceremony on Wesnesday evening, when he referred to recent references to the standard of work in New Zealand schools. “Some of the criticism of our standards of work may be justified, while some has been completely unfounded and made apparently without a knowledge of what has been attempted in our schools,’’ he said. He referred to a recent Ministerial statement which pointed out that whereas a few years ago only 10 per cent of all primary children passed on to post-primary schools, today 90 per cent did so. It did not take much cogitation to decide that the 90 per cent would not maintain a quality of the select 10 per cent. Demands of Trades More trades today were demanding that before a boy could become apprenticed he must spend two years at a secondary school. This placed a primary school headmaster in a dilemma. Should he lower his standard in order to give the boy the requisite time at a secondary school, or must he still demand a standard asked for by the community? Mr. McGlashen also referred to the fact that there were still some occupations which demanded as a minimum educational qualification a Form II certificate. In this maze of conflicting issues a headmaster at times met difficult problems. He tried to be fair to his pupils, to his employers and to the community and in his many attempts to please all he sometimes pleased none. It appeared that problems for those in authority to decide were whether or not a primary school should have grades of certifiaction and whether or not pupils were being sent to postprimary schools when they were incapable of profiting by further education.