FREE PLACE SYSTEM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16214, 27 April 1916, Page 9

FREE PLACE SYSTEM.

ARE CONDITIONS TOO EASY REVISED RULES SUGGESTED REMARKS BY MINISTER. One of the reasons attributed for tli ever-increasing number of pupils ,«ekin admission to the Auckland Girls' Gran mar School is stated to be the comparativ ease with which free places are now ot tainable compared with formerly. Thi matter was discussed between the Miniate for Education, the Hon. J. A. Hanan, an tho deputy-chairman of the Aucklan Grammar School Board of Governor* Professor A. P. W. Thomas, last evening It was admitted that the regulations go\ erning the granting of free places wer considerably easier than they were a yea or two a~o. The Minister said that he considered tha the regulations should bo "stiffened up,' It was of very little use to send a child t a secondary school, for a period of si: months or even a year in order to gain i knowledge in some of tho higher subjects In Sydney the pupils—male and femalowho had attended high schools wero ker in sight after leaving school, and it wa Found that a very large percentage o them drifted into unskilled occupations sir. Hanan expressed the opinion that i was desirable fur certain reasons to revisi the conditions under which free places ivero granted. He strongly believed in opening tho doors of the secondary school by tho free place system to thoso whe would benefit by the training. He was pleased to notice that there was a teniency on the part of pupils of high schools .0 attend at the schools for longer periods, but it seemed to him that some provision ■vas necessary to ensure the attendance ol jupils for still longer terms. Professor Thomas said he agreed with he Minister. He thought that it would )e an advantage to return to the original conditions governing the granting of free places. Proficiency certificates should be secured by children before reaching or by their 14th birthday, except, perhaps, in regard to children from tho uack-blocks schools, where the same advantages were not obtainable as at the town schools. He did not think children who remained at a secondary school for six or even twelve months received the proper benefit, of a secondary school training. He regarded the minimum satisfactory attendance to be a term of two years. Exemptions similar to those provided for in the caso of the primary schools could be grantod.