PRIMARY SCHOOLS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24474, 6 December 1940, Page 4

PRIMARY SCHOOLS

VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE VALUABLE REPORTS Vocational guidance started from the minute a pupil entered a primary school, said Mr T. Conly (vocational guidance officer) in an address to the delegates of the School Committees Association of Otago last night. Schools influenced the pupil from the start, while the teachers indirectly had a hand in guiding the ultimate choice of a career. In Form II- there was often a deliberate and useful guidance towards the choice of a vocation. The part of the Vocational Association was to supply teachers with the information they needed by making as frequent visits as possible, he added. This kept teachers in touch with reality. Primary schools helped the Vocational Guidance Association a great deal through their diagnoses of character, as well as of ability. Mr Conly said. Thousands of reports of this nature ; had proved of inestimable valve. Secondary schools* reports, in ecrriparsion, were merely academic, and not as sweeping. Some people contended that the Vocational Guidance Association should not try to find work for young -boys and girls, but shuld act merely as advisers said Mr. Conly. But theory without practice was futile. Mental tests for the' intelligence quotient showed the inherent capabilities of the child. About 1000 of these were taken every; year. They assisted to illustrate the. vocations for which the ouoils were fitted. Dunedin's Form II scored 102. against the average of 100 for New Zealand. Persons scoring 70, which was very low. would never learn a skilled trade. In conclusion. Mr Conly. who was accorded a heartv vote of thanks, remarked that fashions in occupations sometimes prevailed at time, for seme unknown reason. Probably it was the unwitting influence of the vocational choice of the school's leading pupils.