EDUCATION REFORM

Grey River Argus, 8 January 1944, Page 6

EDUCATION REFORM

NEW SOUTH WALES PLAN SYDNEY, Dec. 24. State school education in New South Wales, which experts for years have claimed lagged behind otner advanced countries, will be the suoject of reform next yean The Minister for Education, Mr Clive Evatt, has approved the proposals, which include the appointment of a special officer to investigate .the educational potentialities of radio broadcasting. “Radio has a bad influence on the cultural outlook of schoolchildren, Mr Evatt said. “It could be a power for good, but, unfortunately, is a power for bad, with its swing and boogie-woogie sessions. Instead oi listening to swing sessions, children could be hearing the music of great masters. Radio and the cinema also have an .adverse effect on childrens speech. There are in Australia two radio sessions which clearly undermine the work of our school by indulging in not only horrible but ungrammatical speech. Is it too much for those who control the broadcasting network to give the children something that will improve their speech, instead of undermining the work done by teachers? Mr Evatt announced that time devoted to art and music in schools would be doubled next. year. He appealed to teachers to give children a new cultural outlook by taking them to the National Art Gallery, libraries, concerts and the ballet. Under the new system homework set for pupils will be less, but varied. Written homework will be greatly reduced and more time allowed for cultural and research activities. Recommendations . ioi changes in homework in piimaiy schools are: No homework for infants in first and second classes; no written work for third, fourth and fifth grade classes, and homework to be confined to reading and memorising- and set homework for sixth class’ pupils, including written work not to exceed half an hour a night. For secondary schools it is recommended that written work other than that voluntarily undertaken, should not exceed half an hour each night on five nights a week only.