WARTIME EDUCATION

Grey River Argus, 12 May 1943, Page 6

WARTIME EDUCATION

TEACHERS’ PROBLEMS. CHRISTCHURCH, May 11. Although 50 per cent, of male teachers were in the forces those who had been left behind had shouldered the added burden, said Mr. D. Forsyth, in his presidential address at the opening of the Diamond Jubilee meeting of the New Zealand Educational Institute. , , Education had not gone back in New Zealand during the war he said. There had been a definite forward progress and it was something of which they could all be proud. In post-war reconstruction education would have to take its place. They had seen the power of education in Hitlerite Germany. They had also seen the result of education in Soviet Russia. Russia had been a downtrodden nation, but had been moulded almost overnight into a race of heroes. “Perhaps, after the war, we may be humble enough and honest enough to tryi to find out how they really accomplished the miracle,” he said, and added: “I have no doubt but that education will figure in the answer.” Mr. Forsyth also referred to the part the church would have to play in post-war planning. The church with its smug lethargy, would have to be reborn and revitalised. The church would have to take its place on the moral side of schools and the intellectual side of present problems would not be solved by mis-directed but well-meaning people who placed the whole of the blame on the schools.