EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3870, 15 May 1928, Page 27

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTE.

THE NEW SYLLABUS. ADDRESS BY MINISTER OF EDUCATION. WELLINGTON, May 7. Reference to the use of unauthorised Looks in the schools was made by the Minister of Education (Mr R. A. Wright) when speaking to-night at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Educational Institute. Depending upon the issue of the new syllabus, eaid the Minister, was the question of new text books. It was recognised that the present list did not meet the requirements, and it was for that reason that he was anxious to have the syllabus completed as early as possible. It was quite unnecessary and unwise, however, to put parents to the "expense of temporary books which might be discarded next year, and hence the authorised list had not been altered. It had been stated, however, that there were 18,000 unauthorised books in use in the schools. He did not deny that statement, but to him what seemed hard was that parents should be called upon to purchase books which certainly next year would be. useless if the teachers were to have a free hand and select whatever books they liked. "Where will the system drift to?” said the Minister. “ M.v experience in life has been that the more highly educated a man or woman is the less they know about money matters. The average young teacher has had no business experience. He has never had to rub shoulders with the world and battle for a job, as many of us have done. Sixty per cent, of the bread winners in New Zealand average less than £5 a week. When they have to pay rent out of that you can see it is not a question of studying shillings, but a question of studying pennies.” “ Well. I have had my civil growl,” added Mr Wright, turning to the president (Mr F. L. Combs). "I don’t know what you think about it.”—(Laughter.) Mr Combs: We welcome it. The Minister: I am glad of that. SIZE OF CLASSES. WELLINGTON. May 7. Details of an effort which is being made by the Department to reduce the size of classes in schools, and some of the difficulties in (tie way, were also touched on by the Minister. He remarked: “Much has been said recently in regard to the size of classes in schools, and I understand that the platform of the institute proposes 35 as a limit which anyone teacher should have in his class. .Before the size can be reduced, however, the department must provide suitable buildings and additional classrooms.’The cost of this would be enormous, and could be provided only gradually. Much has, however, already been done by remodelling some of the existing buildings and adding to others, and the result has been that the number of pupils per teacher in primary schools has been reduced considerably.” While between 1918 and 1926 the school roll had increased, said the Minister, by 24,090, the number of pupils to each adult teacher had been reduced from 40 to 35. There had also been a steady decrease in the size of classes. In 1924 there were 677 classes of over 60 children, in 1926, 187 classes of over 60 children. and in February. 1928, 99 classes of over 60 children. The regulations, he pointed out, permitted of an additional assistant in exceptional circumstances, and to meet the case in those 99 schools 71 additional assistants had been provided, while the other classes had been reorganised. The result had been that the number ci large classes had been reduced. In no case where relief could not be afforded through reorganisation had assistance been withheld. THE PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. WELLINGTON, May 7. Education has not been on the political map for many years. It is impossible to get for it a page of legislation, though days are given to stonewalls over jockeys’ and racing permits, and though weeks are absorbed in looking after our wool, meat, and butter. Wool, meat, and butter are all of great consequence in a pastoral country, but I do not put education second to them. If it is to assume its rank as a national, and therefore an electoral, issue, it behoves everybody who has children or who likes children to become active. Education is not on the political map. Surely it is justifiable and right to urge the public, and above all the parental public, to put it there.” These views v-ere expressed by Mr F. L. Combs. MA., in his presidential address. He added: “ A visitor from another planet to any city in this Dominion to-day would -be convinced that insurance, banking, licensed victualling, motion pictures, and soft goods were not held in light esteem. He would see them on all sides housed in buildings, spacious, ornate, and pretentious. He would find them on the most valuable sites. He would reason, I think irrefutably, that their activities were matters of prime concern. What of our schools? After he had seen old Wellington College, Thorndon Normal, Newtown, Te Aro, Brooklyn, and Petone Central, what would he think of the standing of education? Would he believe that in such mean and cramped surroundings was being performed the most vital function of society? He would find these other business institutions, three at a time, competing for the work that could be adequately performed by one. He would infer, and truly infer, that + 1 ’->v were absorbing twice the man power. illy required to perform their functions. Entering the school he wonk’ "nd that not a third of what the hoir ought forth in the way of needs and portunities was being coped with or tered for.

“ I should stand self-condemned if without fear or favour I did not indict a blot on our system—our compulsory system—which, in my opinion, is blighting our civilisation—a civilisation that may feel complacent if it increases production 10 per cent., but will infalliby clash to ruin if it fails to fashion fully developed wills and independent characters. Such wills and. characters will never be produced while in the name of economy we

stint teaching power, leave one overstrained individual to essay the work of two, or persist in the discredited technique ana methods of mass instruction. Let the child going to school find that his individual problems are given full attention, discernment, and sympathy, that he is progressing along individual lines to a mental and moral stature he never dreamed of, that every day makes a conscious addition to his powers and interests, that every contact awakens and ministers to affections that elevate and refine, and he will discover a joy in selfrealisation and achievement that will make relaxations insipid and distractions an intrusion. Let parents but witness 4his phenomenon of individual self-de-velopment to its optimum, and they too will not concede to, but assert for, the school that central and supreme place among our institutions which it ought always to have held, which it is not to our own credit that it should so long have been refused. SMALLER CLASSES ADVOCATED. WELLINGTON, May 8. Remits dealing with the desirability of having smaller classes in the State schools were considered by the New Zealand Educational Institute to-day, and a motion was carried that the Minister of Education be asked to reduce the size of classes. The urgent need for a reduction in the size of classes was pointed out by many speakers, who said that in large classes the child was being penalised unfairly. Another remit passed was that, where necessary, school buildings should immediately be so remodellled that in no case shall two or more classes have to be taught in the same room at the same time by different teachers. It was also advocated that the infant departments of all schools be staffed independently, and on the basis of 30 pupils to an adult teacher. A sub-committee was set up to frame the reasons why smaller classes are desirable, these reasons to be published. - CONSIDERATION OF REGULATIONS. WELLINGTON, May 9. At the annual conference of the" New Zealand Educational Institute it was decided—“ This institute is of opinion that there should be embodied in the Education Act provisions whereby the institute could request the Minister to set up a court to consider regulations which seem likely to result in injustice, the decision of such court to have the force of regulations.” OPPOSED TO BIBLE READING. WELLINGTON, May 9. By a large majority the conference tonight carried a Wellington remit to the effect that the introduction of Bible reading- into the primary schools under the direction of the teachers was not desirable. SPECIALISATION IN EDUCATION. WELLINGTON, May 11. was made to the new primary schools’ syllabus to-night by the Director of Education (Mr T. B. Strong). The department, he said, was still open to receive constructive criticism of the syllabus, which had not yet become law. Ihe committee had endeavoured, through the whole syllabus, to make recommendations that would enable teachers more fully to stimulate in the pupils’ desirable emotional aptitudes, both of an appreciative and active kind, and had aimed in general to develop a curriculum and a system which up to the age of 14 would offer to all the same educational opportunities. The development of character in its broadest and highest sense was aimed at. The matter was entirely in the hands of the teacher, who would be allowed to develop according to his own ideas, and according to the way life ought to be developed in the pupils under his charge. “ This freedom, I hope,” said Mr Strong, “ will be wisely exercised by teachers, who will be given the greatest latitude, subject, of course, to the approval of the inspector. After all, it is the duty of an inspector to see that the pupils are given a fair deal, and that they receive the best education the country can give them.” “ We must guard against the progress of the pupils being hindered by diversity in the curriculum. Too often instruction in the past has been bookish in character and divorced from the real interest of the child and the life of the community. The aim of the new syllabus is to use the material with which the child is familiar and with that object in view certain studies have been introduced earlier than previously.” “ The syllabus is practical in respect to arithmetic, in that it emphasises not so much the importance of teaching business arithmetic, but the importance of making the instruction as real as possible in the case of science, for example, not only shall the material in the school be made use of, but also the industries outside.” On the cultural side, continued the director, the syllabus was richer in content than any of its preeedessors. English would be studied more broadly, and with greater freedom than previously. He hoped that the time of lavish teaching of grammar had gone for ever. Tbe study of English literature would be emphasised as it had been in modern text books for a number of years past. On the physical side the syllabus aimed at the all-round development of the child. “ More and more,” he said, “ are we tending towards specialisation in education. It is a matter for the primary school as well.”

With regard to the junior high school movement, as it had been popularly called, there was no opposition in the minds of the department or of the Government. He believed that there was a good deal to be said for an extended post-primary course of education. There was a good deal in the assertion of the minority report, that already a very large proportion of the pupils was receiving that benefit. Notwithstanding that fact, they would like all to have the benefit of a secondary education. Ho would liko parents to be encouraged to keep their children in a post-primary school as long as possible. Although it was recommended that the primary course of instruction had to be completed between the ages of 11 and 12—that was, at the completion of Standard IV —there

would be no forced sending of pupils at a certain age. He realised that it was not desirable that pupils should be retarded in a class which was not suitable to the state of development that they had reached.

Mr Strong also said he hoped that a very substantial improvement would be possible this year in remodelling oldfashioned schools and in reducing the size of classes. He did not think the department was extravagant in introducing secondary subjects at an earlier stage than at present, and in suggesting to teachers that the introduction might be made into primary schools as they existed at present he believed the existing staffs were quite capable of doing all that was required of them by the syllabus. There was no desire that the eyllabue should be overloaded. Until the new primary schools had been established the desire was to accelerate the progress ol pupils through the classes, so that they would leave school earlier than at present. It was recommended that as pupils reached the age of 12 they should transfer automatically to the secondary school, where a new environment and a wider scope would give them an opportunity to develop their gifts. The establishment of Standard VII was provided in order that pupils who had passed Standard VI might be encouraged to continue their education while waiting for employment. It was hoped that by that means there would not be a break in a pupil’s school career. The abolition of the proficiency certificates and the substitution for them of primary school certificates, awarded on the crediting system, put added responsibilities upon teachers, but he had every confidence in them.

DAYLIGHT SAVING. WELLINGTON, May 11. A notice of motion —“ That the New Zealand Educational Institute favours daylight saving as being a distinct benefit to the children ” —was given at the conference amidst considerable applause, which the chairman said might be taken as an indication that the motion would be carried when it came up for discussion.

ELECTION OF OFFICERS WELLINGTON, Slay 11. Ihe following officers were elected by the New Zealand Educational Institute: President, Mr A. J. C. Hall (Auckland) : treasurer, Mr C. Robertson (Wellington) ; vice-president, Mr J. G. Polsonexecutive—Miss M. E. Magill, Miss M. C. Edmed,. Messrs J. P. Hawke II F Penlington, F. A. Garry, G. F. Griffiths, A. Murdock. J. Finlayson, P. M. Jackson, and T. Irvine.