EDUCATION IN FARMING

Taranaki Daily News, 29 April 1930, Page 9

EDUCATION IN FARMING

WORK FOR SPECIAL SCHOOLS.

CULTURAL TRAINING FIRST.

A report on agricultural education has been prepared by the council ef the Auckland Educational Society and forwarded to the Minister of Education. The report states: “While heartily endorsing the policy of the Minister in the direction of giving an agricultural bias to the education system; in order to bring it more into line with New- Zealand requirements, the council is emphatically of opinion that education up to the age of 15 or 16 should be broad and cultural in character, and that no purely vocational work should be undertaken until after that age. With a view to breaking down existing prejudices against farm occupations, the council urges that head teachers of schools be consulted by the Minister as to ways and means whereby the schools can be used to combat such prejudices.” It is recommended by the council that agricultural high schools, similar to the Feilding High School, should be estaolished in the neighbourhood of the larger centres. A. further recommendation is that the Farmers’ Union, agricultural and pastoral associations, the National Dairy Association and the fruitgrowers’ and kindred associations, be invited to join in setting up an organisation for placing boys with suitable farmers and assisting them to settle eventually on the land. The council also favours the promotion of “farm projects,” as in the United States and Canada, and to some extent in Taranaki and Wanganui, in order to stimulate interest in country life on the part of boys and girls. The Government is urged to establish “group settlements” in suitable localities.