IMPROVING EDUCATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16946, 4 September 1918, Page 4

IMPROVING EDUCATION.

TECHNICAL TRAINING IMPORTANT. [by telegraph.—own correspondent.] WELLINGTON, Tuesday. The Director of Education, Dr. W. J. Anderson, addressed the conference of tho directors of technical schools and the supervisors of manual training centres today. He said a great deal had been heard recently in regard to the duty of the State to the public school. It was necessary that the Government anr! the Education Department should do all they could to advance the cause of primary' education. There was a great deal to be'done in the improvement of schools, the extension of playgrounds, etc., and also, when the opportunity occurred, in the reduction of the size of classes and the increasing of the pay of teachers. ° There was also an absolute necessity for an improvement in the conditions of the profession generally, but the immediate problem was technical education—the relation of technical education to the primary school, the basis on which it was to be supported, and its relation to other forms of education. The present svstem of payment, based on the English* system, involved an enormous amount of clerical work and trouble, and the time had come for it to be revised. The Department had come in for a considerable share of adverse criticism, but he gave an assurance that it was anxious to carry out all tho improvements shown to be needed.