EDUCATION BILL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19550, 4 February 1938, Page 14

EDUCATION BILL

COMING MEASURE SIMPLIFIED CONTROL EXTENDING SCHOOL AGE (Special to the Herald ! WELLINGTON, this day. An Education Bill to contain a -number of important provisions has been in prospect for some time, and the Minister of Education, the Hon. P. Fraser, was asked if it was likely to make an appearance during the coming session. “The drafting of the measure is receiving consideration,” he replied, “but whether it will be dealt with during the early session has not yet been decided.”

When this measure does make an appearance it will be regarded as one of the important policy items of the Government, for it is expected to contain provision for a high degree of simplification in the administration of our education system, covering both primary and post-primary systems.

District Authorities

What the Minister appears to have in mind as the ideal is the creation of district authorities, by an enlargement of the powers and scope of education boards, which will take charge of the whole administration of education short of the university stage. It would involve, of course, the disappearance of a number of governing authorities, though they would have their duties effectively carried on by the reconstituted education board of the area—and there was a possibility that education districts would be revised with the object of reducing the number of authorities. . .

A point which ha? been receiving official attention is the possibility of creating school councils in association with the secondary schools, so that close contact may be maintained between the institution and the parens of the locality served by it. A recommendation of this kind was made in the comprehensive report on education prepared in 1930 when Mr. H. Atmore was Minister of Education.

School Age Fifteen

The present Minister of Education has shown a keen desire to extend the scope of primary education, and one of his first decisions was to make these schools again open to children of five years of age, instead of the minimum of six years. These extensions bring into more vivid prominence the shortage of school accommodation, but it was found possible to introduce this change in 1935, when there were 2600 children of the minimum school age in the schools in July. The extension to five years brought no fewer than 15,000 additional children into the infant classes. At the other end of the scale, where the leaving age is 14, Mr. Fraser is anxious to raise this to 15, and here again the accommodation problem had first to be considered, as well as that of adequate teaching staffs. During the worst of the depression period the former Government closed all the teachers’ training colleges, but the Auckland and Christchurch institutions were reopened by Fraser in 1935. Wellington, and Dunedin training colleges had been marked down for complete closing, but the new Government’s policy involved a rapid extension of staff, with the result that all four original colleges were again taking students in 1936, the numbers of trainees rising from 428 in 1935, to 1360 last year As the course normally takes two years, it is possible to overcome staff shortage fairly rapidy, so long as suitable personnel is available.

Investigations Ordered

Although the coming Education Bill is likely to deal with the school age, it is an interesting fact that existing legislation is sufficient to enable the proposed exension to be adopted by issue of an Order-in-Council. The Minister has, however, to first satisfy himself that accommodation and staffing are reasonably adequate to cope with the large number of pupils to be educated in the primary schools, and he has announced that the Education Department has been instructed to investigate both phases with, a view to the extension of the school age. This report should be available soon, and if it indicates a satisfactory expansion of accommodation and staffing, the Minister will be able to announce well before the closing o the present school year whether children will be required to remain in the primary schools until the age of 15. .