PRIMARY SCHOOL SYLLABUS.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 December 1926, Page 8

PRIMARY SCHOOL SYLLABUS.

It would be difficult to stress the importance and difficulty of the task which the committee set up to revise the primary school syllabus has to perform. As the Minister of Education (Hon. R. A. Wright) pointed out at the inaugural meeting of the inquiry,, the committee’s findings will be awaited with interest, not only by the Government and the teaching staff, but also by the general body of parents. The order of reference has" been made a wide one, and is to include the vexed question of homework. Most people will agree with the Minister’s contention that it must be remembered in framing the syllabus for the primary school that 40 per eent. of the pupils will receive in those schools the whole of their academic training. Therefore what is usually termed the “practical” side of education is of much importance, but nevertheless it is not all that is required. True education consists in the preparation of the mind for manliness and womanliness, for mental capacity, for skill and a command over one’s self,, so that whatever fortune may be met bv pupils when they go out into the world, they may take it boldly and with self assurance, because of the equipment given them in the schools they have left behind. The superstructure of such education can never be satisfactory unless the foundations are true and solid, and it is in the primary school that those foundations are laid. There has been some expression of the opinion that our educational system is becoming slightly top heavy, in other words, that secondary schools have had more consideration of late than primary. Whether such an opinion is justified is a matter for experts to decide, but ic is obvious that anything like rivalry between the primary and the secondary school would be fatal to our educational system. The one school is the complement of the other, and only by their absolute co-ordination can the opportunity for a thorough mental training be given to the pupils attending them. The revision of the primary school syllabus should help in this co-ordination, and clear away any misunderstandings that may exist.