EDUCATION SYSTEM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20254, 14 May 1929, Page 11

EDUCATION SYSTEM.

NEW POLICY PENDING.

BIAS . TOWARD AGRICULTURE.

RAISING STATUS OF FARMER

[BY TELECEAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] WELLINGTON, Monday. In an address to the New Zealand Educational Institute to-day, the Minister of Education, the Hon. H. Atmore, indicated that as part of his programme of reorganising the education system there would be a unification of the local administrative bodies in tho various districts and a unification of the sectional teaching bodies employed in primary, secondary and technical schools. Agriculture would bo given greater prominence in the schools' curricula. The Minister said he was not in favour of an expert being given administrative power. Ther.e was always a danger when that was done. He recognised he had very capable advisers around him, but that did not mean ho would follow their advice on every occasion. His consideration was for the million and a-half people in New Zealand, and his decision would always bo given according to what he thought was in the interests of the whole, and not in tho interests of one particular section. "Unemployment in New Zealand today is largely the result of our education system," said Mr. Atmore. "You cannot get away from tho fact that we are taking the bright brains in the towns and harnessing them for town occupations. We do worse than that—we take the brightest brains from the country into the cities. We have to get past the idea that it takes more brains to make a successful clerk than it does to make a successful farmer."

The Minister said his recent tour had convinced him that the standard of physique among tho school children could not bo excelled in any part of the world. There was nothing wrong with tho teachers, either. They were a loyal and devoted band, who had tho welfare of the children at heart. He felt sure that they would recognise that the situation called for co-operation on the part of everybody. So far as the proposed reorganisawas concerned, he had the principles firmly fixed in his mind and they would be put into operation, but on a good many points it was necessary that he should have the advice of the teachers.

*' I want to allay any fears in regard to the proposed alteration," added the Minister. "The machine has not been changed for a good number of years and we can very well wait a month or two longer before the final decision is given. So far as the main principles are concerned, I have come to the conclusion that an alteration must be made; it is simply the question of putting it into operation that I am concerned with." The two portfolios in the Cabinet which should be most intimately connected were those of education and agriculture, and the Minister hoped there would be a strong agricultural bias in the new system. The social status of the farmer must be raised. It must be looked upon as an occupation that required the best brains in jNew Zealand. There was something radically wrong when the young people leaving school could not get work, and the education system would have to be more practical than in the past.