TECHNICAL SCHOOLS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23830, 9 June 1939, Page 2

TECHNICAL SCHOOLS

COMMENT BY ENGLISH VISITOR FEELING OF ADMIRATION “ The impression made upon me by the arrangements for technical education in New Zealand is almost entirely favourable,” says Dr F. H. Spencer in a report just issued by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Dr Spencer was Chief Inspector for Education for the London County Council before he retired, having previously been an inspector of technical schools under the Board of Education in England He spent two months in New Zealand in 1938, his visit having been made possible by the Carnegie Corporation. During his stay he saw the four principal technical schools, and a representative section of the smaller urban centres. ** Dr Spencer is of the opinion that adequate provision for technical education has been made in all of the larger and in most of .the smaller urban centres. In his report he says that he knows of no region where more attention, proportionately to the needs, has been given to the rural community than in New Zealand. Technical education, he points out, has to meet very miscellaneous needs; the variety of industries. carried on in the larger urban centres is large, the numbers employed in each category of industry are small. This difficult problem has been courageously and ably met, and much of the credit for this is due to men like Mr J. Howell, and Mr W. S. La Trobe. Dr Spencer finds that the Education Department willingly forwards the technical side of education, and that there is adequate, even excellent, equipment almost always. Training for Trades For the skilled trades the day education provided is not so much a technical education as a preparation for apprenticeship, and real technical education in present circumstances if it occurs at all, must follow apprenticeship or other active participation in industrial life. The practical training given in the technical high school, states the report, is general rather than specific, being an excellent preliminary training for a group of trades, rather than for any particular trade. Anything in the nature of specific and advanced technical education can be provided only in evening classes. Dr Spencer considers that proper care of evening classes can be provided only if they are under the charge of some person on the staff of the technical colleges, whose special responsibility it should be to organise, foster, and supervise them. Such a head of an evening department should have sufficient time in the day to familiarise himself with local industry, interest employers and employed, and infuse energy into that side of the work in which technical education of the specific kind is carried on. The technical school buildings, the report goes on to say, are well designed and suitable, and, the equipment is excellent for the work to be done. The buildings in the smaller places compare very favourably indeed in every material feature -with institutions of a similar size in England. Dr Spencer was impressed by the, high leyel of ability, and .indeed of intellectual distinction of the principals Of the technical schools. The average level of teaching ability in the staffs struck him as being distinctly high, and, indeed, he thinks that the staffs are capable of dealing effectively with - a higher proportion of advanced work than in fact exists. The Smaller Centres Dr Spencer recalls with pleasure his visits to the smaller centres, and the work in progress in their technical schools. The provision for these smaller centres is much more comprehensive than it is in England. He does not favour the combination of technical and secondary schools except in those towns where the numbers seeking post-primary education are small. ' The provision for agricultural education at Feilding receives special comment from Dr Spencer, who thinks that, if half a dozen of the more purely rural counties at home organised rural secondary schools of the Feilding type, it would be of great service to an industry which is still the largest single British industry. At Stratford, too, he was impressed by the way in which the school has managed to create an interest in agriculture, without making any cultural sacrifices. Towards the end of his report Dr Spencer-writes: “ I am confident that in the techniQal high schools, viewed as an integral part of the technical college, New Zealand has created a noteworthy, and, in New Zealand conditions, a fitting type of school.” He goes on to say, “New Zealand has confronted the problem of technical education valorously and successfully. It should Cease to apologise for its efforts, and just go on nourishing and forwarding the system it has developed, pruning it and planting more of it where common sense and practical expediency demand, and meeting pundits, theorists and logicians with a subdued but confident smile.”