HIGHER EDUCATION.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 53, 8 April 1914, Page 9

HIGHER EDUCATION.

RUSH IN NEW SOUTH WALES. "Great confusion appears to exist among our critics in regard to the names of .the various types of schools which they frequently confound/' said the New South Wales Minister for Education at a public school ceremony recently. "We have," proceeded the Minister, "high schools, district schools,, superior schools, public primary >.schools, and evening continuation schools, but Hometimes because a. high school serves a district, it is referred to as a district high school, when in reality high schools and district schools are different types. I am of this by a statement made the other , day that the Department has built high schools and staffed them at enormous . expense, and yet, after all, the pupils would not attend them. I cannot, believe this statement could have been made seriously, foxofficial statistics have frequently been given showing the enormous increase in high school attendance. Our trouble is to find places foi- the pupils seeking admission. "In 1910 Ave had five high schools, with a total Enrolment of 1168. Last year we had 15 high schools and five intermediate high schools, with a net en-' rolment of 4626, while at the district schools 1666 pupils were taking the secondary course of instruction. Our secondary pupils have increased in three years from 1168 to 6292, an increase of over 5000, and yet on the face of this certain of our critics have the effrontery to state that pupils will not attend our high schools. Our district schools have proved equally successful. Last year three of them were so successful in point of efficiency and attendance that they were promoted to the rank of high schools, and three other district schools will be similarly promoted as soon as the buildings in course of erection are completed. "Next, take our superior schools, which have also been adversely criticised. When these schools were reorganised at the beginning of 1913 the Department met the same difficulty that exists in the country where every parent wants a school within his own paddock. There was a clamour from every suburb to have one of the new superior type of school established.. Our experience has taught us that we must adopt the principle already in operation in connection with the high schools. There must be centralisation ill superior schools just as there is in connection with high schools. Instead of establishing such schools in every suburb one. school easily accessible to a number of public schools within the vicinity will be made the central superior school, at which ail the pupils in the district above the fifth class standard will attend. "