The Hawera Star. FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 1929. JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 25 January 1929, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 1929. JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS.

Delivered every evening by 6 o’clock in Hawera. Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltkam, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Alton, llurleyville, I’atea, Waverley, Mokoia, Whakamara, Oliangai, Mereinere, Fraser Road, and Ararata.

The assessment of the value of junior high schools and .their place, in the future policy of the Department is one of the early tasks facing the, new Minister of Education. This addition to the secondary education system was introduced by Sir .Tames Parr, when Minister of Education, and at present there are seven recognised institutions of the kind in New Zealand. When the idea of making this experiment wa® hrslt introduced from America it aroused- eoaisicleraible controversy and l , though it was able to survive, criticism sufficiently to become realised, the permanency of the junior high school a® feature, of our 1 posit -primary education! system cannot even yet bo, taken for granted; it hats its’ critics within and without the inner circles of education administration-. In many places' parents have little or no 'knowledge of the working of the system, or of the objects it is designed to serve. The purpose of the junior high school is to. provide- a: course of intermediate instruction, between' the primary and secondary school courses, and its aim is .to discover as early os possible. the pupil’s aptitudes 1 , so that he may enter upon the course of study for which liie is moist suited. Thus the pupil who has passed 'Stumdalrd IV. in the ipfimary school may begin his study

of secondary school subjects much earlier in his school life. It os claimed

that the pupil preparing for the academic icxamimatioms make© better. progressl under this system t'halni he dioes ! in the ordinary way, in which he is not brought into touch with the higher subjects' until he has passed Standard "VI. The system hais much to) recommend it to those who 1 are awake that much slowing down of the progress of the brighter pupils may take place in the primary schools, owing to the necessity ifioir all pupils to bo ciarried along to examinations at something approaching a uniform rate, but doubts 1 are thrown upon the practicability of making the system general throughout the Dominion when the question of costs is j considered. Of the seven junior high I school s in New Zealand, two, are ini .the liSowth Island and live. in. the North. /Four of these, at Whangared, Rotorua, Blenheim and Waatalki, form part of the local secondary school; at Mnturnata the junior high school is part of the district liiigh school; at Northcote it is part of the primary school; and only the Kowhai Junior High School, in Auckland, is n, separate and independent institution. If the results' of this system prove as satisfactory as anticipated it is that other parts of the Dominion will make application to 1 have similar institutions 'established. It can be readily seem that the buildings, land, staff and equipment required for am extension of the system on a DoTuini an-wide sealc would cadi for very I heavy expem'dituro at a time when- it is [difficult to obtain grants for replacing ) many primary school buildings,now sad|ly deteriorated after forty or fifty . years of usefulness. The need for additions to and replacement of, some of these latter buildings is urgent in the extreme. I£ is not likely that school committees, and householders who acre Carrying on under great idiffieulties, . often by pressing into l service hall® and : outbuildings which were never intended for occupation by children, will be content to .see their applications for grants' shelved while further expenditure is made upon junior high schools. The late Government was conltemplatimg the expansion of this intermediate! system /by attaching it to/ the primary schools, providing clas'ses wherein the l work can be extended beyond the present sixth standard. Some such scheme •would probably recotaimend itself ito a i Department embarrassed by lack of money on the. one hand and by the urging of educia.tiotaal idealist® on the other, but for some time theme! has been a tendency in official quarters to suspend jmdgmemt on the subject. The prieslent Minister has promised, in reply to certain inquiries, to make a state- 1 memt ini regard to Ms attitude to junior high schools during the next few weeks’. |