EDUCATION CHANGES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21470, 19 April 1933, Page 14

EDUCATION CHANGES

"INTERMEDIATE" SCHOOLS NEW SYSTEM OUTLINED HIGH HOPES OF SUCCESS DY A TEACIIKIt Early and important changes to the education system of the Dominion are forecast by tho amending Act passed in the dying hours of last session. New Zealand contemplates following the lead of Britain and tho United States in definitely casting its schools into three classifications, primary, intermediate and secondary. This three-fold scheme of child training Mas commenced experimentally 10 years ago, when the junior high school plan was introduced in a few localities, under varying systems of local control then considered most suitable. One special experiment was made at Kowhai, Kingsland, where a junior high operated as an entirely separato unit. At other centres these new wheels in the educational machine were attached to secondary schools, technical high schools and district high schools. When tho new regime was initiated, tho junior high school staffing was made liberal. Tho proportionately smaller number of pupils per teacher, and tho higher rates of salary offered, raised tho cost per pupil educated to approximately twice what it would have been in primary schools. Children were expected to spend six years in the primary institution, leaving thoro after passing through standard four at tho approximate ago of 12, three yearfj in tho junior high school and then, if their, parents desired it, a. further three years in a secondary or technical high school. The now plan, expected to conio into general operation next year, is marked by considerable variation from tho original. Tho term "junior high" school disappears. "Intermediate" replaces it in more than a change of name. The salaries in tho' new group of schools contemplated have been computed on a scale which will make them little, if any, greater burden on the taxpayer than those now paid in tho primary schools which continue 011 to standard six. Tho attendance period $t tho intermediate schools will bo reduced to two years, and there will bo a reversion to tho older scheme of a possiblo four years' secondary course. Unclassified Pupils It might seem from this that the "intermediate'plan simply adds another unnecessary complication to an already complicated system. In an address recently delivered in Christchurch the retiring director took great pains to explain tho need for his proposals. Ho emphasised that in our existing primary schools the pupils of standards live and six, now called forms one and two, were of many degrees and types of attainment, and that it was impossible to teach them to best advantage, and with due attention to developing their own natural inclinations, while a single teacher had such unclassified bodies of pupils. The now step would enable proper classification to bo undertaken, as it has been at Kowhai, through the centralising of the "tops" of tho primary departments of a group of schools at ono institution, where they would function as a separate unit, and where children could be so graded that they would work to their full capacity ill classes with others of their own type. t The benefits of this plan have already been demonstrated, although at considerably increased expense in staffing, equipment and buildings. Now it is to be tried without these additions, to see if the same result can be achieved economically. Naturally, the first places of operation will bo the chief centres of population, where the transition will bo simple. Throughout Auckland and suburbs, for example, it is anticipated that districts each containing three or four primary schools will have these schools decapitated, that one of these schools will cease to function as a primary institution, and will bo called an intermediate. From it tho children of and below standard four will be despatched to the other adjacent decapitated institutions, while it will como tho two upper classes of theso schools. No Expensive Accommodation Thus within a few miles from the heart of the city there will be operating about ten or a dozen intermediate schools whero classification and specialisation will be possible, but where there will not bo for the present all the expensive accommodation and equipment for woodwork, ironwork, art, dressmaking and cookery such as havo facilitated the working at Kowhai. Manual training centres are scattered about tho city and suburbs, and to these tho intermediate pupils will go as they now do from tho upper standards. Regulations governing the staffing and control of these intermediate schools have been gazetted, a salaries scheme for their teachers has been drawn up, and all is in train for bringing- the new plan into action. Thoso in touch with education expect to see it in operation next year, although t/«,e complete change-over may take quite a long time. In more scattered districts the procedure will probably bo different from that outlined above, and there are bound to be country schools whero the old standards five and six will remain simply because facilities do not exist for economically centralising pupils. 111 the cities, parochial interests may view the change with alarm. Parents may not like to sco the school which they onco attended, and where their children are now pupils, lose in status through decapitation. There may bo a weakening of old associations with a building which has been much more than a building. Small children, too, may havo further to toddle at tho call of the daily bell, yet their journeyings will be short compared with those of many a country child. School committees'who havo given time and enthusiasm to supporting, improving and beautifying schools may chafe at seeing tho passing of the old order, bilt, if tho claims of the sponsors of tho new plan are justified by experience, tho advantages will bo so great that initial grumbling will turn to eventual satisfaction. A fine spirit of rivalry should grow between intermediate schools in tho cities, a spirit which will manifest itself in classrooms and 011 sports fields. The bringing into operation of the new plan will form ono of tho biggest tasks of the new head of tho Education Department, for- tho director who has sponsored tho scheme so energetically retires this month.