EDUCATION IN NEW ZEALAND

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 10 June 1935, Page 9

EDUCATION IN NEW ZEALAND

COMMENT BY PROFESSOR GOULD | CLEANLINESS AND CURRICULA (By Telegraph—Press Association) WELLINGTON, Bth June. The cleaning of schools was referred to by Professor W. H. Gould, professor of Education at Victoria College, to-day following a report a few days ago in which a certain South Island school (in Marlborough) was referred to as “a dirty dungeon.” Professor Gould said nothing was more important in the education of children than that the surroundings should be healthy and clean, but far too often classrooms were dirty and insufficiently lighted, while children were crowded into rooms too small to accommodate them properly. Great advances had been made in the past ten years, but our schools did not compare, with those either in America or England. Professor Gould went on to speak of the examination system, which he said was totally out of alignment with the true aims of education. Not only did they put an undue and even dangerous strain on the physical organism of boys and girls of all ages, and especially during puberty, but a warped and starved mental outlook and stultified development resulted. Examinations allowed no scope for the development of individuality which was the fundamental aim of edution. TTiey so completely.dominated the education system that unfortunately the child came out of school with a stock of knowledge bearing no. relation to the actual experience of or activity in life, and that consisted in the main of inert ideas. This was not the fault of the teachers but of the system. The educational system was at fault, but if there were sufficient public demand for an amelioration of the environment: ot the children and the improvement of curriculum by broadening it and increasing its scope and contact with experience and life of the child himself, this improvement would take place. It would seem education must begin With the older generation. New Zealand once prided herself on being a leader in educational, matters, but she had now fallen behind England and America. There was nothing more important for the future of this country than that the children should be better and more widely educated, and the people should realise their responsibility to the future of the race.