The Northern Advocate Daily WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1936. EDUCATION IN NEW ZEALAND

Northern Advocate, 5 February 1936, Page 4

The Northern Advocate Daily

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1936. EDUCATION IN NEW ZEALAND

Registered for transmission through the post as a Newspaper,

The Hon. Peter Fraser, Minister of Education, has announced that the Government intends to overhaul the education system of the Dominion in the light of the investigations made by the Atmore Commission in 1930 (of which Mr Fraser was a member; and to base legislation upon the best features of the commission’s recommendations. The announcement of the Government's intention to overhaul the education system is welcome. There are obvious weaknesses in the system, but. despite that fact, it is very necessary that great care should be exercised before drastic changes are ‘

made. Those in the Dominion who have reached middle age will remember the nn,settlement caused by various short-lived and costly changes in curriculum and administration. As the Government has indicated that it intends to adopt the best features of the Atmorc Commission’s recommendations. it will be useful to review some of those recommendations. The commission was emphatically in favour of the system which is in vogue in Whangarei, where the junior high school principle has been adopted. It held that the primary school course should end at the age of eleven plus, or after passing the fourth standard. Tt is the generally accepted opinion of educationists that at the age of eleven, or when he or she has passed the fourth standard, a pupil should be given the opportunity to reveal special aptitudes to which purely literary studies formerly denied an outlet. Hence the domestic, manual and agricultural courses which have been adopted at the post-primary schools, attendance at which, the Atmore Commission recommended, should be compulsory until the age of fifteen years, with provision for exemption in the case of hardship. It further recommended that intermediate classes should form part -of the education system, and that the types of schools or classes to be adopted should be as follows:

1. —Junior high school, such as Kowhai, taking Standards V. and VI. pupils from large contributing schools and giving three years’ course. After passing Form 111. pupils continue their education at secondary or technical school.

2.—Junior high school, such as Northcote, with primary school attached No secondary department above Foz-m 111.

3. —Junior high school with secondary school attached. No primary department below Form I. (Such are Rotorua and Whangarei High Schools.) 4. —Junior high school with primary school and secondary school attached, all under one headmaster. . (Such is Matamata District High School.)

The commission recommended further consolidation of schools and classes where practicable, so as to, ensure an adequate education, particularly for children in rural districts. Much attention was devoted to the scholarship question. The commission made recommendations which are open to criticism. It held that the scholarship question is no longer necessary as a means of providing free education beyond the primary stage, and recommended that the funds now applied to the provision of National and University Entrance Scholarships should be utilised 7 to assist deserving students to continue their education to the higher stages, the awards to be based not on competitive external examinations, but upon consideration of individual cases recommended by the senior inspector or superintendent of each education district. This recommendation strikes at the whole examination system, which, admittedly, has much to be said against it, though the formulation of something better is another matter. The proposal of the commission, if given effect, might open the door to patronage, but it is obvious that the existing system does not always work out fairly. The examination system, it is needless to say, does not inevitably bring to the top the best students,. for it is common experience that on examination day some students with a thorough knowledge of the subjects with which they have to deal find themselves in a state bordering ( upon mental vacuity. This, however, is but one indication of the complexity of the whole question, and suggests the need for care before making a change in existing conditions. Mr Atmore, when Minister of Education, was convinced, almost to the point of obsession, that the great importance to New Zealand of its primary products demanded that the curricula of all schools should include adequate practical instruction in agriculture and allied subjects. The commission was of the same opinion, and its recommendations in this connection were a feature of its report. There is not room for question as to the importance of agriculture to the Dominion, and any system of education which can achieve the double purpose of picking out students whose natural bent is towards agriculture, and giving those students the opportunity to educate themselves in the theory and practice of farming, is to be earnestly desired. Agricultural plots conducted in connection with a number of schools throughout the Dominion have served a good purpose, despite the criticism that has been levelled against them as j “merely playing with agricul-1 time.” It is to be hoped that our administrators will be able to evolve a system which will make agricultural education a matter of real value, and so prepare young people for the intensive farming which will mark the future of New Zealand. We have touched on only a few of the matters which any attempt to overhaul the Dominion’s education system must cover. In our opinion, a reform urgently needed is one which would obviate the continual changes that take place

in the staffing of schools. This, of course, would necessitate drastic change in the system of school gradings and teachers’ salaries, but it is obvious that so long as teachers come and go, almost like tourists, as so often happens today, there cannot be developed that spirit of pride in a school’s achievements which is the spur to good work on the part of teacher and pupils alike. We shall : await with keen interest the elaboration of the Government’s I intentions.