SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Southland Times, Issue 19518, 18 May 1922, Page 5

SECONDARY SCHOOLS

CONFERENCE OF PRINCIPALS. (Per United Press Association.) WELINGTON, May 17. The annual meeting of the Secondary Schools Principals’ Association was held today. The following were nominated for office in the Secondary Schools Association, which meets to-morrow: President Mr J. R. Cresswell (Wellington College), members of the executive Miss F. M. Cruickshank (Wanganui Girls’ High School), Messrs W. A. Armour (Napier Boys’ High School), and W. W. Thomas, (Timaru Boys’ High School). Mr Renner (Wellington College) said there was danger of New Zealanders’ pronounciation of some words becoming faulty, almost to Cockney. He said “praise” was pronounced as “prize,” “my” as “moy,” “now” as “neow,” “go” as “gow,” etc. After a lengthy speech he moved: “That the attention of all examining bodies, the University, and all educational authorities be called to the widespread prevalence of wrong methods of speech and pronunciation, and that this Association request such bodies to take action by means of suitable training methods, viva voce tests, and all means in their power to foster a standard system of pronunciation and thus check the growth of any New Zealand dialect.” The motion was seconded by Mr E. D. J. Kerens (Wellington), who pointed out that the late headmaster of Wellington College, Mr W. P. Firth, had conducted tests with his most promising classes and had found the standard of diction unsatisfactory. The president, Mr R. M. Laing, eaid he preferred the pronounciations generally heard in the north of England to that of the middle and higher classes of England. Mr James Drummond, Chief Inspector of Secondary Schools, said that though he did not take the same gloomy view as Mr Renner, he had noticed signs of Cockney accent, but he had never come across anything really bad in any particular school. Some vowels were obviously mispronounced. Far more attention seemed to be paid in girls’ than in boys’ schools. The fault seemed to be principally in lip laziness. The best test of pronunciation was not reading but oral composition. The question as to whether dialect was really a bad thing was open to debate. While he thought Mr Renner had overstated the ca.se in his opening remarks, he agreed that there was some need for improvement in diction in the schools. The motion was carried unanimously. ASSISTANTS’ ASSOCIATION. WELLINGTON', May 17. The annual meeting of the Secondary School Assistants’ Association of New Zealand commenced to-day. The president, Mr R. M. Laing, occupied the chair. The president said there could be no more reproductive expenditure than that upon education, which always bore results. New Zealand deserved a system of education equal at least to any other system in the world. There was no reason why it should not strive for something better. The conference proceeded to disc.usa a series of remits respecting the grading of • teachers and staffing of schools. It decided to draw the attention of the Minister to tho congestion in various grades of secondary schools, and to the difficulty which non University centre secondary schools found in getting suitable teachers; and to urge him to amend the regulations so as to enable reasonable expenses to be paid to teachers moving from one school to another

A iesolution was passed urging that the regulations for secondary schools be amended (a) K as to render it possible to have accelerated promotion within a grade but especially in grade D in cases where in opinion of the secondary school insj>ectors such promotion was warranted; (2) so that a teacher graded higher than the grade of the position held should receive the maximum salary of the lover grade. A Gisborne remit that a year of war service should count as two years for grading and superannuation was approved. It was agreed to recommend that teachers who have appealed successfully against their grading should be allowed travelling expenses to and from the place of appeal, as is already allowed in the public service. The conference substantially approved of the proposals of the Departmental conference with the exception, that the suggested constitution of the temporary Board of Managers of junior high schools during the experimental stage was criticired as undemocratic and of too centralising a. tenency. Officers were elected as follows:—President, Mr E. C. Caradus; vice president, Miss Gresham ; executive, Messrs Gifford, Lockel, Ryder, Campbell, Laing and Miss Coad; auditor, Mr Alexander; vice president of the New Zealand Secondary School Teachers’ Association, Misa Coad; members of the council Messrs Laing, Lockel and Caradus.