JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 16 October 1922, Page 7

JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS.

APPROVED BY TEACHERS'

INSTITUTE

(by telegraph—press association.) WELLINGTON, Oct. 16. The Minister lor JiXiucation is gratified to nnd that the New Zealand .ticlucational Institute endorsed his policy of establishing junior high schools, Tne secretary to tne institute has forwarded the Minister the following motion carried at the last meeting of the executive: "That this executive congratulates the Minister on the successiul opening of the first intermediate school under the title of junior high school,, and trusts he will be encouraged to proceed with the extension of the improvement of the education system which this opening foreshadows." The Minister stated to-day that the opinion of the Techers' Institute was valuable, because it was the judgment of experienced ~ educationalists. The public, however, was gradually reaching the conclusion that there were certain deficiencies in the education system, and that remedies must be secured. The reconstruction of the courses of education from six to fifteen years of age, which will be effected in the intermediate school system, will, he j felt confident, prove to be a solution of many existing difficulties. The extension of the school age to 15 must, of course, follow as the complement to the new scheme, which could not be run with watertight compartments. At present there was a big gap, anid the new system, said the Minister, will largely break down the barrier separating the primary and secondary teachers, and will tend to unify tho profession. The primary teacher will have a new avenue of promotion opened to him, while the secondary teacher of the future will get nseful training in the junior high schools, and so enter upon senior high school work with training which the young, university graduate who began teaching in the secondary schools often lacks.