TECHNICAL NIGHT SCHOOLS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9736, 11 August 1917, Page 3

TECHNICAL NIGHT SCHOOLS

ENCOURAGING PUPILS 'TO attend. Replying to a request made by Mr R. A. Wright in the House of Representatives relative to, the encouraging of boys who have left school to attend technical evening classes, the Minister for Education (Mr Hamm) staled: “Prom returns furnished by Education Boards it appears that about half oi the pupils who left the primary schools during 1913 did not continue their education last year, and that of these "about 75 per cent, reached the ag© of fourteen years without having passed Standard VI., and consequently left the primary school without a certificate qualifying them for further free education. ■ It is not improbable that among these pupils would be found a considerable number who, ■if given opportunities for further free education of a suitable character, would ultimately become worthy units in the ranks of the industrial workers. With this object in now I have recently issued regulations amending those relating to free post-primary education The new regulations provide for ‘free classes’ bearing on industrial (including agricultural and domestic) pursuits IVor pupils who have reached the age of fourteen years without gaining a Sixth Standard certificate, and are recommended therefor by an inspector of schools.”