TECHNICAL EDUCATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25386, 18 November 1943, Page 4

TECHNICAL EDUCATION

AUCKLAND REQUIREMENTS MEETING INDUSTRIAL NEEDS (P.A.) AUCKLAND. Nov. 17. Because Auckland is fast developing its secondary industries a report by a select committee on the extension of technical education in intermediate schools was presented to the Auckland Education Board to-day. The committee recommended that the Seddon Memorial Technical College, with a roll totalling 1800, should be raised to the status of.a purely technological college, issuing diplomas and providing a finishing course of two years in all industrial crafts to students who had been given two years’ prior elementary training. A further year could be spent by advanced students working for approved employers, in conjunction with the college staff, and awards of diplomas could be made on the results obtained. The committee said the college was overcrowded, and next year the enrolments were expected to reach 2400, making the classes unwieldy. Relief was, therefore, urgently needed. The opinion was eimpressed that there should be more provision for night classes in industrial suburbs to stem the-increase in juvenile delinquency which inevitably ensued when youths in the late ’teens had no profitable and attractive occupation in the evenings. Referring to country communities, the committee said that a junior agricultural school should be attached to each intermediate school with a de- „

finite two years’ 1 course preparatory to an intensive diploma course of two years at an agricultural college. As the school age was being raised to 15. the committee said It was concerned to provide a course, both acceptable and efficient, for the large number of children who would be required to continue for an additional year at school. If something of this nature was not provided New Zealand’s educational institutions would contain a percentage of rebellious pupils who would do much to sabotage the usefulness of the additional year. The board decided to set up a committee of five to go thoroughly into the proposals and report back.