EDUCATION RESULTS.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 October 1929, Page 8

EDUCATION RESULTS.

The figures obtained by the secretary to tlie Taranaki Education Board (Mr. H. W. Instill) in regard to the work taken up by school pupils when school days end, are of considerable interest. Tliey show that in Taranaki the “bias towards agriculture,” which the Minister of Education maintains must be an essential ingredient of sound education, has not been ignored, and that fairly satisfactory results have been obtained. Of those in Taranaki whose school studies ended at the primary school no fewer than 72 per cent, of the boys and 7 per cent, of the girls took up agricultural or pastoral pursuits. I : f the analysis were taken further it would probably show that the larger proportion of the scholars referred to were pupils at country schools, and therefore more likely to take up husbandry than scholars in town schools. The percentage is distinctly cheering, for it is the primary schools that prepaxe the foundation for whatever education may follow. The figures from secondary schools tell a difle'rent story. District high

schools send 34 per cent, of their pupils on to the land, high schools 19 per cent., and technical schools 18 per cent. "District high schools mostly serve country districts, and the effect is seen in the pursuits adopted by their pupils. There is. room, however, for a higher percentage of young farmers from them, but still more room for improvement in the high and technical schools. It secs quite evident that few country pupils proceeding from the primary to secondary schools have any intention of following agricultural pursuits, and of applying to them the higher education they have received. In the case of technical schools the smaller percentage is less difficult to understand. As their name implies, the technical schools are training grounds for trades as well as professions, but what seems necessary in both technical and high school pupils is a realisation that farming is a highly skilled enterprise and not mere rule o<f thumb drudgery. Those who take up husbandry may have to work harder during their years of training than their fellow pupils who take up other callings. At the same time the outlook for the efficient farmer, other things being equal, is certainly no worse than for the newly qualified professional man or tradesman, and in manv cases it is decidedly more hopeful. '