THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 1936 WORKERS' EDUCATION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22399, 21 April 1936, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 1936 WORKERS' EDUCATION

After twenty-one years of experience, Auckland participants in the activities of the Workers' Educational Association are celebrating its coming of age in this district. A few members of the initial classes organised here in 1915 are able, by reason of their maintained interest, to survey the whole period in reminiscent mood. One of these has rightly emphasised the need to take stock as well as to celebrate, and the j Minister of Education, himself able to speak of Auckland before the classes were initiated, has uttered thoughtful words about their aims and achievements. This approach to the occasion is to be commended. Measured by possibilities, the movement is still young, and care for its future is more important than jubilation over its past. That it has come creditably through its years of practical test should be regarded as a fact of promise rather than a guarantee of useful permanence. Inevitably, it can make worthy progress only as it ministers to, and is served by, successive groups of enthusiasts imbued by the excellent ideals actuating its founders. Any review now indulged should, therefore, be marked by honest inquiry as to what was intended and a doing of justice to that intention in all endeavours to prolong and expand the usefulness of the institution. Reminiscence, that is, should deal with more than the things on the surface, with underlying purposes instead of statistics, in order that ensuing progress: may be advantageously guided.

The W.E.A. is of British origin. Some trade unionists in England, alertly aware that Labour's demand for rights could win no more than an illusive success if there were no accompanying ability to use rights well, launched the first association of the kind. That was some eight vears before the movement came to this country, and ,in the interval it had been profitably shaped. To acquire education of a thorough sort —broadly viewed and yet of the exacting: standard prescribed by a university—was the idea. Critics deemed it too ambitious and scarcely practicable. How could wage-earners, it was asked, find time for such study, and how could they proceed to it without the preparatory tuition assumed in the case of university students'? The programme had to be modified. Some subjects prominent in degree courses were necessarily excluded from the scheme; others in these courses were reduced in scope; those customarily covered in a year were extended to three years; and the method of an hour's lecture followed, by an hour's discussion was evolved to admit of intensive and interesting study, conducive to culture in thinking. Thus came the typical W.E.A. class, something far better than the. popular univer-sity-extension lecture although of necessarily slower progression than classes held under normal academic conditions. The experiment offered to provide a compensating stimulus to personal thought, and so it proved. But before anything of real value could be accomplished there was required the active sympathy of academic institutions, mainly in the supply of capable tutors. This was at once forthcoming. The University of Oxford led the way. Its Tutorial Class Committee was formed in 1907, and in rapid succession other universities and colleges co-operated, until soon every scholastic centre of note was similarly interested, the whole system being administered from Lon don, where an advisory committee jointly representative of Labour and Learning kept both sides of the united enterprise in vital touch. The financial generosity of the academic centres made possible the charging of a merely nominal class-fee, wholly devoted to local expenses.

Since then the system, as part of a crusade of adult education, has become well established in other British lands. Its activities have become a charge on State revenue. In New Zealand considerable financial assistance has been rendered by Governments and local bodies. For many years the Senate of the University devoted £I2OO annually to this work. At every turn there has been dependence on such aid, legitimately given in conformity with the special nature of the classes, which do not conflict with those conducted in degree or technical courses. The subjects, according to the ideal, are those calculated to increase rational enjoyment of life and capacity for citizenship—not directly of value in qualifying for diplomas or earning a livelihood. How far has the ideal been realised 1 There have been reasons for misgiving as well as for congratulation. The number of manual wage-earners taking advantage of the opportunity has sometimes been regrettably small, and often smaller than the number of those for whom the classes were not primarily intended. Subjects of slender educative value in themselves and in their treatment have proved at times more attractive than others strictly in line with the main purpose. Complaint has been made of partypolitical propaganda in some classes. The Minister of Education has referred to "grave questionings" about the work of the association. No general indictment, however, can be drawxr. It is for those intimately connected with the movement to see that the excellent idea embodied in it at the beginning is faithfully honoured. If that be the rul®, unbroken by serious exceptions, the "VV.E.A. can anticipate an increasingly useful career.