PRIMARY SCHOOLS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 17132, 7 September 1926, Page 7

PRIMARY SCHOOLS

DEFECTS IN SYLLABUS

INSPECTOR’S CRITICISM

"ARITHMETIC IS OVERDONE’’

i Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. For many reasons a revision of the

syllabus appears desirable,” states Mr. T. B. Strong, chief inspector of primary schools, in bis annual report on primary education, presented to the House yesterday. “ The syllabus could lie enliilied. not only in the direction of utilising more freely training in bandwork, but also by giving a stronger bias towards the study of English literature, and towards the more practical side of elementary mathematics.

“ Facility in English composition, both oral and written, has greatly increased in recent years, and teachers now secure as well written compositions in standard II as was in former years thought possible only in standard IV. There was a time when the syllabus specified six sentences in a composition for a standard 111 lesson. Our pupils in the higher infants’ classes far exreed this allowance.

“ At the same time there is no doubt ilia! too much attention is being paid to the mechanical aspects of the teaching. English grammar lias far more than its rightful share of attention, and much time is still being .wasted on the spelling of difficult words that are not in the least likely to enter a child’s vocabulary for several years. More attention should be paid to good English literature in order that pupils before they leave the primary schools mav he imbued with an appreciation of, and a love for, some of the finer work of our best- authors. SOME USELESS LUMBER.

“ Time for this broader study of English can also he .secured hv reducing the amount of time usually allotted to arithmetic. This subject- has been overdone in the past, and is still being overdone. It is not too much to say that with many teachers it is the principal subject in the curriculum. We have already jettisoned a great deal of useless work in arithmetic, and T think there is still some lumber to he got rid of. ‘'The arithmetic taught in primary schools is not a .disciplinary subject, nor does it enable the child to develop a faculty for overcoming the financial difficulties ste may meet with in after life. Its content should, however, he cbwety related to liTe needs. The real life situations provide abundant material for even most ardent arithmeticans, and 1 think that in this direction the scope of the subject should he widened lo in elude those simple practical problems in geometry that most men arid women meet with in some shape or form. 1) the primary syllabus were modified along these lines of utilising more fully the handwork and manual training subiects in the direction of making tlie arithmetic more practical, and more suited to everyday needs, and in (he direction of widening the study of English. I think the primary schools would themselves advance a long way towards 'mining some of tlr* advantages which the junior high school is intended to provide.”