HOUSEHOLDERS’ MEETINGS

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 4, 25 April 1914, Page 4

HOUSEHOLDERS’ MEETINGS

At the meetings of householders to elect School Committees, which are to take place throughout the Taranaki Education District on Monday next, opportunity is given to parents to bring forward and discuss matters which they may hold to he of importance in the education and training of their chil-i dreu. It is seldom, however, that much is done at such meetings beyond the mere election of a Committee, and from many points of view this is regrettable. In the neighbouring State of | Now South Wales a few years ago an! institution was started for the purpose of fostering a growth of public interest in educational matters and it has made wonderful progress and has proved very helpful to the cause of education. • The original Parents’ and Citizens’ Association, as it was called, was started with the object of securing a maximum of education advantages for the children attending the State’s public schools, and the idea so appealed that there are now quite three hundred such Associations in existence. Latterly they have affiliated, and an annual conference of delegates to' a body known as the Council of Parents’ and Citizens’ Associations is held. Reports of the last conference, held in Sydney at Easter, indicate that valuable work has been done in helpful and suggestive discussion and criticism of the problems which are bound to be met in connection with the training of the young. Such an institution tends to counteract the public apathy which is so often apparent in regard to school matters, and ■in New Zealand we might do worse than follow the example set in this regard by Now South 'Wales.