Equal Educational Facilities for Country
ASSURANCE OP MINISTER Par Press Association. •WELLINGTON, Lust Night. An assurance that so far as it lay in Ilia power no child would suffer educationally because he lived iu a relatively sparsely populated area, is given by the Minister of Education (Hon. P. Fraser) in a letter received by the New Zealand Farmers' Union. The Minister's communication-was iu reply to a remit passed by the recent Dominion conference of the union, urging that country children bo given educational facilities more nearly equal to those enjoyed by town children in order to remove one of the chief disabilities of farm life. f ‘l am convinced that one of the most effective moans of securing a stable and contented rural population is iu providing a system of education which, wnile in no way inferior to that enjoyed by the towns, will lake special cognisance of the conditions peculiar to country life." said Mr. Fraser. ‘‘l wish to say I am quite of one mind with your union in feeling it is ’only by consolidating small schools, which local conditions made necessary half a century or more ago, that the preliminary steps ill improving rural education can be made. Your general recommendation that a full survey of country education be undertaken is a matter receiving my attention." Replying to a further remit passed by the union, advocating the institution of a system of voluntary adult education similar to that afforded in Danish folk schools, the Minister said it was pertinent to ask whether we had corresponding climatic conditions and also whether our social life, with its facilities for indulging in sport or watching others at play and its evening entertainments, would not be a serious obstacle to the successful establishment and maintenance of such schools.
Mr. Fraser said the whole question of adult education in both town and country districts in New Zealand was nt present Being considered by a committee set up by the Senate of the Uuiversity. - ' 1
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Bibliographic details
Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 212, 8 September 1936, Page 7
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332Equal Educational Facilities for Country Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 212, 8 September 1936, Page 7
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