SYSTEM OF EDUCATION

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 288, 2 November 1934, Page 4

SYSTEM OF EDUCATION

BUSINESS MAN’S CRITICISM. Per Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, Nov. 1. The present system of national education in New Zealand was criticised by Mr A. M. Seaman, president of the Associated Chambers of Commerce of New Zealand, in an address at the annual conference of chambers to-day. Mr Seaman said that the training given young people in New Zealand primary and secondary schools was faulty in that the examination system had become too much of a fetish and had given a deadening effect to teaching, and because of the tendency to specialise on “useful” subjects at the expense of training on general lines which would allow original thought and initiative.

Mr Seaman suggested that universal free education should finish at the primary school stage; that a generous system of scholarships should replace the present free place system, and that a similar policy should be adopted for entrance to the University, also that senseless competition among educational institutions should be eliminated.

It was absurd, lie argued, that secondary schools should attempt technical training, and that technical schools should have academic classes. A modification of the system, he argued, would benefit the community and relieve the public purse.