BACK TO SCHOOL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20171, 4 February 1929, Page 8

BACK TO SCHOOL.

The reopening of the primary schools is fraught this year with a new interest because of the operation of ihe new syllabus. Schemes of work, as teachers and inspectors describe their planning 01 means to teach the young idea how to shoot, have been already tried out in many schools, but the beginning of the new year offers a special opportunity to put the innovation to the proof. Teachers will no doubt use the opportunity with enthusiasm, offerice as it docs more scope for individual initiative than they erstwhile enjoyed. Whether 1029 will become. in consequence, an annus mirabilis remains to be seen. At least it will provide an excellent field for the resourceful teacher, and s comparison of notes at the end of the year, if not before, should make for the increased efficiency to which every zealous teacher hopes to attain. The new syllabus, however, is not all to which teachers look as productive of more satisfying results. They are asking what is the mind of the department as to the better organisation of the education system. That system, in spite of frequent review during recent years, remains in need of closer articulation. Its several grades and sorts are still in danger of falling apart, and a tinge of irony is found by critics in the very word ' system" as applied to it. The Minister has said that it is the mind of the Government, not that of the department. on which he has been asked by the Educational Institute to express himself. It is a distinction without a difference, seemingly : but. whoever is to decide, there should soon be some pronouncement as to what is to be done with the various suggestions made of late for coordinating the disjointed elements of policy. Others beside primary teachers are anxious to know what is to be done.