THE SCHOOLS

Southland Times, Issue 22998, 18 September 1936, Page 11

THE SCHOOLS

UNIFICATION OF CONTROL OPPOSED AUCKLAND PROTEST A strong protest against the proposed unification of post-primary school boards with primary school boards for the purpose of controlling all education, from kindergarten to high school, was received at a meeting of the Southland High Schools’ Board last evening from the Auckland Grammar School Board. The protest, which has been issued in an official statement to all post-primary boards, described unificatio nas a retrograde step. It was stated that the Auckland Board recognized that modern developments in education necessitated some alteration in the method of control and suggested an alternative scheme. The meeting decided that the matter be held over till the next meeting of the board.

The letter stated that education in its various stages or groups was worthy of the concentrated attention and interests of those best qualified to deal with those individual stages. It was unsound to assume that a large board of voluntary members would effectually promote education in all its aspects. Some would have little knowledge of or interest in the primary schools and would confine their attention to the post-primary side and vice-versa. If all schools were to be handed over to one board, the result would be to substitute the control of officials for that of board members. A loose general knowledge and no peculiar care or interest must be the feature of boards that were charged with responsibilities that were too numerous and diversified. Unification of post-primary with the primary boards had already been tried in Auckland; the experiment proved an unhappy one, and to return to it now would be a retrograde step. Alternative Scheme. The letter then went on to describe the alternative scheme which the board had drawn up. “We beileve,” it stated, “that the most necessary reform at the present time is in connection with post-primary education. It is generally agreed that primary education should end at 11 plus. At this age pupils should be introduced to post-primary subjects. Where possible, there should be an intermediate department attached to every post-primary school. In a large city it would probably be necessary to institute separate intermediate schools, but it is essential that there should be the closest co-ordina-tion possible between the intermediate and the post-primary schools. In the intermediate school there should be the preparation for further studies that the way of pupils may be smoothed and the breaks in the course of their mental development avoided. It will often be possible to gauge the mental capacities of pupils, to discover the natural bent of their minds and decide the lines on which their further education should proceed. For this reason it is important that the schools in question should be under one post-primary board. So far unification of postprimary interests is desirable. “The responsibilities involved in the co-ordination and management of the varied interests of post-primary education, as outlined above, are quite large enough for the work of a separate body. Moreover, such a board is more likely to attract members who have special knowledge and interest in the subject. The Auckland Education Board has great responsibilities already, and to add the control of post-primary interests to its existing work would be unwise. The erroneous idea that postprimary schools are purely academic in type seems to persist in some quarters.”