SECONDARY EDUCATION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18888, 22 December 1924, Page 12

SECONDARY EDUCATION

♦ THE HAMILTON SCHOOLS. AN ANOMALOUS POSITION. _ f QUESTION OF AMALGAMATION. fBY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] HAMILTON. Saturday. The anomalous position regarding the Hamilton High School and the Hamilton Technical High School, which are situated almost adjacent to each other, was referred to by Mr. E. Wilson, headmaster of the High School, in his report at the annual breaking-up ceremony yesterday. He said that early in the year the Education Department submitted proposals for the amalgamation of the two schools. The proposal meant a simple joining up of the two schools, which were to offer the same course of work as at E resent, but were to be controlled by one oard and directed by one headmaster. Simple as such a proposal appeared, it was very far-reaching in its effects, and was open to grave objection. From the day of amalgamation there would have been over 600 day pupils and several hundred night pupils, a school which, by its very complexity of character, would be difficult to organise and successfully control; a school attempting the work both of a high school and a technical school. The High School Board was of the opinion that both sides of the school would suffer by such an arrangement, and submitted as an alternative the following proposal to the department:—(l) The retention of the Technical School, not as a day school, but as a manual training centre, taking purely technical and vocational subjects, required by high school and primary school scholars, and a wide variety of vocational subjects required by evening students wishing to improve their standing in commerce, industry, and art;' (2) the separation of the boys and girls of the Waikato doing post-primary work. Had these suggestions been given effect to, Hamilton would soon have had two secondary schools, continued Mr. Wilson, one taking all the general work of the boys, the other of the girls, and a technical school taking only technical work. These proposals were not acceptable to the department, and the present anomalous position was to continue—the Hamilton High School on one side of Hinemoa Street and the Hamilton Technical High School on the other.