EDUCATIONAL LADDER

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8363, 25 February 1913, Page 3

EDUCATIONAL LADDER

PRIMARY SCHOOL TO UNIVERSITY. NATIONAL PLAN. The interest aroused by Lord Hallane's announcement of the Govern* aent’s intention to deal immediately vith the whole problem of national education, primary, secondary, ano iniversity, will not be diminished as ihe concrete proposals become more fully understood (writes a well-inform-ed authority on education matters to the London “Daily News and Leader"). While Lord Haldane was careful to -peak in general terms —and, indeed, ill discussion of details is as yet premature —1 am able to state the broad outlines of the Government policy so tar as it has already taken shape. To state the facts concisely, me following reforms may be anticipated: Primary School. Education to cover a longer period of years, beginning earlier and continuing later. Curriculum to be broadened, particularly in the direction of increased manual, and technical instruction. Extension of medical treatment and (where necessary) of school meals. Leaving age to be raised, and halftime system under fourteen to be abolished. Secondary. Room to he found (if necessary by an increase of number of free places) for every primary school child whose capacity justifies and circumstances permit, the continuance of his school education. University. Universities on the lines of Liverpool, Leeds, etc., to be increased in number, with the special object of serving local needs over an area of several counties. Scholarships or other subsidies sufficient to open door of university to every boy or girl reaching the required standard. General Salary of the President of the Board of Education to be raised from £2OOO to £SOOO. Number and status of ■ teachers both in primary and secondary schools to be raised. Increased cost to be met out Of taxa-, tion, not out of local rates. LORD HALDANE’S IDEALS. While the new proposals represent in every sense the settled policy of, the Government, they” mav Be regarded as representing in a special degree the views of two members of the Cabinet. It was not a mere matter of convenience that Lord Haldane was chosen to make the announcement of the new scheme, nor was his reference to Mr Lloyd George’s sympathy merely a formal reference to the head of the Treasury for the time being. * These two statesmen, both of them men of vivid imagination ans unusual administrative ability, have approached the question of education with a special in- ' terest, though they have arrived at it from entirely different starting points. Lord Haldane’s wide experience in the field of higher education—he is Rector of Edinburgh and Chancellor of Bristol, haS an intimate-'knowledge of Gottingen, as well as the’ four Scotfish universities, and has been sitting for some years as chairman of the Royal Commission on London: University—has led him to regard the university as the key of the position. - His recent speech af Bristol was devoted to an exposition of the value and potentialities of the new “civic university” established as an expression of local educational aspiration, animated by the' same public spirit to which it owed its-rise, and by close co-ordination with similar institutions in other districts setting up standards and demands that would gradually bring into line the whole of the secondary, and through it the primary, education of the country. It is clear from the Manchester speech that that ideal is still in the Lord Chancellor’s mind. Mr Lloyd George, on the other hand, quite definitely begins at the bottom. He has fought the battle of the aged and given them pensions, by the Insurance Act he has met the needs of the able-bodied in middle life,’and now his eye turns to provision for the child as the crown and -completion of the magnificent social achievement of the present administration. Moreover, as Chancellor of the Exchequer he • is keenly alive to the fact that just as the Insurance Act will reduce the number of applicants for old age pensions, so the proper care of the child in early years will raise the standard of health and materially decrease the payments of sick and medical benefit. . SCHOOL FOR MOTHERS. The Education Bill will embody these two aims, both essential, both in perfect harmony as complementary to each other. The first period of the child’s life to be affected will be the years between one and five. At present the State exercises some supervision over a child’s birth and earliest days, and then for, a period of four or five years relaxes her hold. In the new measure the main recommendations of the consultative committee of 1908 are likely to be adopted. Schools for mothers will be established on a generous scale, and what may be termed a State kindergarten institution in the -shape of special nursery schools for such children under-five as it is considered well to remove for some hours of the day from surroundings unfavourable to the development of their health or character. When the child enters the primary school —or earlier if necessary—he will realise the significance of Lord Haldane’s dictum that “a child ought to be made fit to receive education.” That means the physical disabilities must be removed. Medical inspection is now universal, medical treatment will be extended in the same degree. Tho Chancellor has already authorised grants on an ascending scale for this purpose, and a large development of the principle may be looked for. School meals fall into the same category. To give a needy child one good meal in the day is a great achievement, but one meal does not satisfy the requirements of nature. In necessitous cases a second meal will be provided. SCOPE OP CURRICULUM. With regard to the curriculum three special classes of children will be kept in mind: Those who will never get beyond tho primary school. Those who can oontinne their education through the secondary school. Those who_ go on from secondary school to university. To all three classes one consideration applies. This right to education must be bought, not by money but by merit. Every child whose capacity justifies it will have equal opportunity to continue his education to the end of a .university, For those.whq

do not go as far the curriculum will bo so adjusted that the child who leaves the primary or the secondary school will have received an education based on a scheme complete and cohesive up to that point. While the primary child will be kept longer at school he will be encouraged by means of continuation classes to continue his education along lines immediately directed to the requirements of the particular trade or employment he may have chosen. This preparation—in the field of technical and manual instruction—willj indeed, in many cases begin in the primary school itself. The “ educational ladder ” already exists in theory, and since the provision of free places in secondary schools by the Act of 1902 many thousands of children of working class parents have passed from primary to secondary school. It will bo a simple matter to raise the percentage of free places (at present 25 per cent.) where necessary and extend the principle to candidates for a university course. The idea of universal free secondary education is not being entertained.