ADULT EDUCATION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22401, 23 April 1936, Page 12

ADULT EDUCATION

STIMULATING INTEREST BROADCASTING AND LIBRARIES The meaning of adult education, and the way in which it could be assisted by broadcasting and the libraries/ wore discussed by various speakers at a conference arranged by the Workers' Educational Association in Auckland, and held in the old Grammar School Inst night. The conference was called as one means of marking tlm coining-uf-.ige of the association in New Zealand, and also to stimulate interest in the possibilities of a really vigorous adult education movement. Mr. N. M. Richmond, director of the tutorial classes of the association, who spoke on the meaning of adult education, said its importance hardly seemed to be realised in Now Zealand. in describing what libraries could do for adult education, Mr. John Harr, city librarian, expressed tho opinion that a well-selected collection of books, properly arranged and catalogued, unci made available to students, was tho most essential unit for self-culture. He referred to the necessity for a plan of national library re-organisation in the Dominion, and the extension of library facilities to rural areas, which would enable real help to be given to adult education.

Tlio part to bo played by broadcasting in the development of adult education was dealt with by Mr. W. H. Cocker, chairman of the association's tutorial class committee, and a member of the Broadcasting Board. He said a great deal of unconscious educational work was done through broadcasting. The greatest difficulty in adult education by means of broadcasting was to find the people to provide the talks. A resolution was passed to the efloct that both rural and urban libraries* should become free libraries, and that the present, limitation 011 expenditure by local bodies should be abolished.