EDUCATION SYSTEM

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 10898, 12 May 1921, Page 7

EDUCATION SYSTEM

OUTSTANDING DEFECTS POST-PRIMARY, TECHNICAL, AND SECONDARY COURSES. FETISH OiF EXAMINATIONS. Mr F. Martyn Renner, M.A., made lengthy reference to the educational system at the Secondary Schools Assistants'’ Conference yesterday. Mr Kenner drew attention to some of the defects in the system, and suggested methods of reconstruction. To a great many people, he said, the view of education was materialistic. They required another Renaissance, and as it required a great catastrophe in 1453 to bring on the travail that, ended in the new birth of learning, assuredly the great cataclysm of the recent world war ought to bring about a new birth in education. Education must have a wider and deeper significance. It must bo that form of it which would teach the World three things: (1) The nobility of work and labour ; (2) the true relatioq of the individual to the State; (3) the true relation of the individual to -his neighbour. In noting the defects of the present system, Mr Renner contended that in the primary department the schools were too few, the classes were far too large, and the syllabus was overloaded with trimmings. The large classes meant moral deterioration, as no teacher could give the individual attention that the children should receive. Independent reasoning had to be subordinated to mechanical processes of education. The overloaded syllabus meant that the knowledge gained must be more or less superficial. Too much had been made of the argument for the so-called trimmings that a child must be taught by interesting it. -As soon as possible a child must be taught to realise that the way of learning was not a primrose path. Education spelt discipline from tbe very outset. OUTSTANDING DEFECTS. The outsanding defect of the secondary schools was the lack of 00-ordi-nation between the primary and the secondary systems. Methods of teaching and subjects were different. The gap as greater than most people realised, and the lack of co-ordination ij%s directly responsible for , the failure of very many young people to get any benefit from secondary education. As a remedy for this, primary school teachers w-ho were well qualified should be encouraged to pass on to the secondary schools; as soon as possible there should be established in every centre post-primary schools through which all children -should pass either to a secondary or to a technical school, and adequate .training should be given for - secondary school teachers.- Another defect of the secondary education was that far too many children entered secondary schools who would never receive any benefit from such an insrtitu. tion. To obtain greater uniformity in the children who passed on to secondary or technical schools was one reason why he advocated the termination of the primary course at the age of twelve ..and then giving a post-primary course of one or two years, followed by a consultation between the headmaster, the inspectors, and the parents, to map out a more exact educational course, and determine whether it was worth while sending the child on to a technical or secondary school, and, if so, which P

EXAMINATIONS NOT EVERYTHING. Air Renner criticised the fetish made of examinations in the secondary schools, and urged that a sensible use should be made of the accrediting sys tem. The object of secondary education should not be the passing of examinations but the moulding of young lives into the -best type of citizens. Up to the present the general average length or time spent by a child at secondary schools had been two and a half years, which was too short. It should be extended to at least three and a half to four years. Concerning technical education, Mi Renner argued that it should not be commenced until the child had a sound general education, so that it was in a position to derive the full benefit from practical . instruction. Something •more was needed than was supplied by the primary course, and here the postprimary course would come in. Technical high schools _ as at present constituted were quite anomalous, and under a reconstructed system would become real technical schools.

In suggesting remedies to* tbs defects in the present system, Mr Renner ulrged that in the primary system there must be more up-to-date buildings, adequate playing areas, better salaries to attract the best brains and ability to the profession, more training colleges, and the revision of the syllabus to give more time for essentials, and, above all, mare direct moral and physical instruction. BRIDGING THE GAP.

After the primary course, ending at twelve years, there should be a postprimary course, uiliform throughout New Zealand, to reduce the variability of the proficiency standard and to

bridge the gap between the primary course on the one hand and the secondary or technical eouirses on the other. The post-primary course should comprise: (1) English of such a nature as to form the basis for learning language; (2} elementary mathematics, including arithmetic; (3) elementary physics and physical measurements; (4) economic history, geography; (5) civics and the elements of economics; (6) drawing. Those* children who were to become wage-earners after the postprimary course would, presumably, continue at a technical school for part of the day until the age of 15. It would not be difficult to arrange a suitable course for them if they had a good grounding in mathematics, physical science, etc. There would be a different course for the pupils who passed from the post-primary to the technical schol for full-time instruction. With regard to the secondary schools, Mr Renner considered that there should be two well-defined courses, modern and classical, the one having as its objective, if examinations were to be kept, the accountants’ preliminary examination and the other the matriculation examination. Mr Renner sketched the course to be . taken in each case emphasising that parents should know that the modern side was no longer the neglected portion of the secondary schools’ work. IMPORTANCE OiF ECONOMICS. He regarded economics as a very important subject for both sexes. It would he led up to by .way of civics, economic history and economic geography. “It is quite true,” he said, “the New Zealand University does not regard it as a matriculation subject, but only as a degree subject, but it seems to me that every child should in these abnormal days be given some ideas on the great social and economic questions of the day. Unless certain vital and fundamental principles are instilled into the child at school, principles to which it can cling and find oomfort in, that child will become a prey—an easy prey—to the fallacious and pernicious doctrines that have produced such havoc in our own times. I know from first-hand acquaintance how many hoys lap up, and how greedily they lap up the ideas of extreme and often atheistical socialism. To my miild sound continuous moral instruction, begun in our primary schools and continued upwards through the post-primary and secondary or technical schools, and hacked up by a study of economics in the two lastmentioned types of schools, will have a surprisingly good effect on the rising generation. That is why, after going fairly deeply into the suitability of economics and- sex hygiene as secondary and technical school subjects, I unhesitatingly advocate their adoption—the former entirely, the latter judiciously—as fit subjects for teaching the child on the one hand its duty to the State and to others, and on the other, a feeling of reverence for its own body and for the welfare of future generations.” STATE OF BUILDINGS.

Mr Renner further drew attention to the state of some secondary school buildings, mentioning particularly those in Wellington. He urged also the institution of proper training colleges for secondary school teachers, arguing that much harm was done nowadays when children, having been trained by trained teachers in the primary schools, were handed over for the well-intentioned but wholly inexperienced young teacher to practise on. In conclusion, Mr Renner referred briefly to the good points in the education system, instancing the loyalty and devotion of some co-workers in the primary and secondary schools and the fine spirit of self-sacrifice shown by the backblocks teacher. “Without knowing it we have a national aim In whatever branch of the teaching profession we may be. What I am sure we all want to see is not our present blind, unconscious progress, each section of the education service working in its own little circle, but a bold, open-eyed, definite and steady march, shoulder to shoulder, towards that ideal of education -which will yet be reckoned as one of the great saving forces of humanity.”