EDUCATION SYSTEM

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6869, 26 March 1929, Page 9

EDUCATION SYSTEM

The Expected Reorganisation For many months much public discussion has centred round the need for a reorganisation of tho education system. The probable form that the reorganisation may take has been the subject of anxious speculation. The Executive of the New Zealand Educational Institute, in view of the probability that it will not be long before an official announcement is made, takes the present opportunity of putting before the public the main principles that should be observed if a system is 10 be developed that is at once in keeping with modern thought on the educational process and worthy of the nation in which it is to bo applied. By way of brief historical introduction it may be pointed out that our education system in the beginning was a primary school system only, administered bv Education Boards in the various districts. As the needs of the country grew, secondary schools and, later, technical schools were established. not administered by tho Education Boards but by separate governing bodies of their own. These schools were thus added to the system but not incorporated into it; and it is to this fact more than to any other that the criticisms and complaints against the faults of education in New Zealand have been due. In fact, there has not been a single system of education in New Zealand, but three systems, each a separate compartment, ignoring if not actually ignorant of what is going on in the other compartments. Many columns could bo filled with descriptions of the evils arising from this division into compartments of what should be a united whole.

Unity. The Executive of the Institute therefore would lay it down as the lirst principle to bo observed in reform of the system that there should bo unity. It has been the custom to speak of the various stages of education, the secondary stage, the technical stage, the University stage. In actual fact there are no such stages. Education is a continuous process, and the education system should be so constructed as to recognise and apply that fact. The break that is heard so much of between the primary and secondary schools is not a natural break inherent in the qualities of children, but an education system. • There should bo no greater break for the pupil in passing from the primary to the post-primary school than in passing from the second standard to the third in tho same school. The loss of ability that tho nation suffers through the disjointedness of the existing system is beyond calculation. Tho first thing, then, that the Institute looks for in any scheme of reform is unity,—not uniformity,—but unity of organisation. Continuity. The reason why the Institute asks for unity of organisation is that by that means alone can the greatest need of an education system be met —the need for an orderly continuous progress of the pupil from the infant school to the end of tho school course, —whether that bo at tho high school, trade school or University. In every enlightened country to-day effort is being made to get rid of the artificial and false distinction between primary and secondary (or technical) education. It is customary to talk of tho break at the eleventh or twelfth year. There is no such break in the pupil’s growth, and there should bo none in his school c-oursc, said Dr. Ballard recently. “There is no universal change or psyIchical crisis at eleven years of age.” Tho second principle, then, that the Institute hopes to see embodied in tho reform of the system is the possibility ; of a single continuous course or curri- j culum that will allow tho pupil to pro- x coed without any break at all through f tho whole of tho school career. That j does not mean that all pupils are to f follow the same course:—far from it. r

If modern educational science has anything to teach it. is that there is infinite diversity among pupils and the essence of educational administration is that it should provide in as large measure as possible for parallel courses along which differing qualities and aptitudes may be developed and utilised. In this way, by this provision of parallel courses, pupils of literary bent will be able to follow their bent, pupils of what is called the motor type will devote themselves more to the hand-work course, . scientific leanings will find scope in the laboratory and the budding farmer in the agricultural course, and so for tho commercial course, and, by no means of least importance, the home science course. That is what is implied in the phrase continuity of progress; and by that means the breaks that have done such mischief in the past and arc doing it now will bo avoided. How is this to be brought about? There is probably only one way. Certainly the most obvious way is by a co-ordination of control. Co-ordination.

To give effect to the principles of unity of progress and continuity of curriculum, there must be a breaking down of the barriers that separate the so-called primary schools from the so-called secondary and technical schools. In each district, instead of three separate governing bodies dealing with only a part of the work, there should be a singlo authority. In real fact thero is only ono work to do, and one body could do it much better than three. It is inherent in the nature of tho work to be done that it is only one body that can do it to advantage and not three. Given a single controlling authority in any area, it -would be possible to so arrange the work that the facilities available could be used to best advantage of tho pupils. A boy of mechanical tendency need not then bo compelled to pass his time in the uncongenial atmosphere of the grammar school, nor would a girl with a leaning towards science be confined to the commercial school. The parallel courses under co-ordinated control would give opportunity for changing from course to course as abilities and temperament and desires began to declare themselves. A single authority would be able to take a comprehensive tnrvow vk- of the area under

ts control, and arrive at tlie best | means of using the facilities available and estimate tlie need for development in one direction or another. It is not a matter of calling pupils primary pupils till they are eleven years old amd then calling them something else. It is a matter of providing for all pupils such opportunities of finding and developing their real powers, their natural endowment of intellectual, moral and social qualities, as will enable them to make the best of themselves for the community, and not, as it so often the case and even the fourth best. Such a scheme means, of course, the welding into a single body of the three existing forms of governing bodies. No apology need be made for that. The old tripartite system has had its day and has done it 3 work. It is not suited for, and it is not capable of doing, tho work that has to be done in the administration of a system that will be worthy of the name of an education system as distinct from a schooling system. A single authority is needed to survey the whole Held and direct the work within it. Such a body must havo definite responsibilities and the corresponding powers. Modern education makes an ever-increasing appeal to the hearts and minds of tho people, and the system that is going to adequately recognise that fact that must give scope for and opportunity to and make use of all the thoughts and feelings and endeavours that are summed up in the term local interest. Local knowledge, local enthusiasm, local pride, offer a wealth of support and assistance that no wisely desgined system will neglect. . In what has been 1 here set down the Executive of the Institute has confined itself to what it regards as tho three cardinal principles that govern the situation. Matters of detail have been avoided. They can be dealt with as occasion demands, and the only probable effect that would follow their introduction hero would be to confuse the issue. At the proper time the Institute will be ready with replies to any questions that may on particular points.