DEFINITE PLANS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 1 September 1934, Page 7

DEFINITE PLANS

EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH FUNCTION OF DOMINION COUNCIL Tho opinion that there is definite scope for educational research work in New Zealand; and that it has every prospect of being valuable, has been formed by Ur. C. E. Beeby, who was recently appointed executive officer of tho New Zealand Council of Educational Research, after a visit to Australia for the specific purpose of seeing how tho work was conducted in the Commonwealth (reports the Christchurch '‘Times”). Dr. Beeby, who has returned to Christchurch, has now formed definite plans as to how the work should be organised in tho Dominion, and hopes to place them in operation about tho end of the year. He said, however, that the work m New Zealand would not be modelled on the Australian lines, because of the different conditions in the two countries. The council would collect material from at homo and abroad and act as a kind of clearing-house for ideas and information about education. Such work was being done in Australia, and it was needed in New Zealand, even though the organisation could not be modelled on similar lines. Dr. Beeby explained that although he would be going to Wellington about the end of the year, the central or ganisntiou would not bn concentrated on _ Wellington alone. “The local educational institutes and interests, which already exist, will be organised and linked up throughout New Zealand and t!ie central organisation will be a sort of focal point for them,” he said. “That is really the only excuse for such a large sum of money being spent on research in New Zealand.” The Australian Council of Educational Research, which had its centre Melbourne, and branches throughout the country, had been doing for five years successful work of a- similar nature to what; it was now intended to do in New Zealand, said Dr. Beeby. He had studied the organisation of the council, the dregress it had made, and its relationship to' oilier educational bodies ; and there was no doubt that it was gaining increasing influence in Australian education. Australian educationalists were tending to turn to it not only for information" about educational matters, but also for the solution of specific problems in the Commonwealth.