NEW ZEALAND EDUCATION

Northern Advocate, 12 June 1929, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND EDUCATION

BROADER SYSTEM NEEDED. MISTAKES OF THE PAST. FARMER. COMES FIRST. In his address to the High School children yesterday, and later when replying to requests for increased manual training facilities at the Wliangarei High School, the Minister of Education, the Hon. H. Atmo-re, expressed the opinion that New Zealand must break away from purely academic education and concentrate more on the training of the hand and eye. The ob] idea of education was to concentrate on the cultivation of a taste for the finer things in life, so that they might be enjoyed to the full. This was only one side. It was said that man could not live by broad alone, but it was equally true that broad was necessary. So the fitring of children to take their places in ithe world and to earn the wherewithal, so as they could enjoy the pleasures of life, was also a consideration

Nowadays it was not a question of old dames’ schools, or education for the rich alone. After leaving school 98 per cent of Now Zealanders were forced with having to earn their own living.

Every opportunity must be given to young people to give expression to their creative faculties. The idea that technical) education was an extra was doomed. Either secondary education would absorb technical education, ior vice versa. The ,time came when everyone, even if hits head wore in the clouds, discovered it was necessary to find the 'necessities of life when living with his feet on solid earth.

iAeadomie education tended to stifle creative faculties, in time preventing the pupil from being himself or herself.

Many of' those who would grow up to be the most useful citizens were not capable of developing the memory power, which, after all, was the main attribute for passing examinations Even in business, the men with the highest academic, qualifications were rarely to be found at the top. POST-PRIMARY INSTRUCTION.

Two great commissions, those of Lord Haldane and Sir William Hadow, had recently advised that . postprimary education should begin at the age of eleven, the period of adolescence, when a fresh supply of blood was flowing through the veins and individuality began to assert itself. It was this individual aptitude whieh should be discovered and developed. .To do this it was necessary that, the number in classes should be reduced, so that the teacher could cease regarding his pupils as a number of names, or roll, or a sea of faces, and help each in the path must suited to his or • her capabilities. Overcrowded classes meant that the country was not receiving full value for the £4,000,000 expended.

The educational practice of the past and experience .of .other countries were of little use to Now Zealand, where conditions were totally different. The country was wholly dependent on the great farming industry for 0;> per cent of the exports were primary products.

Contrary to general ■ belief, there was more scope on the land than in the crowded cities, and yet it was considered that more intelligence was required to make a successful clerk than a farmer. SOCIAL GRADUATIONS. In the social scale, the professional man comes first, followed by the, commercial man, the craftsman, and the farmer last.

If he (the Minister) had his way he would invert this order. lit was the sane way of looking at the matter. Professional men certainly were needed, but their work was not nearly as important as that of the primary producer.

In the 'immediate future New Zealand must concentrate on technical instruction, and young men must be 'prepared for the work which was most essential to the country.

New Zealand was so peculiarly situated (that, a broader educational system of its own had to bo devised, and this Air Atmore said was now engaging his attention His tour had been most useful in enabling him to study local conditions everywhere.