EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

Taranaki Daily News, 15 April 1935, Page 7

EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

CRITICISM OF THfc PLAN

BUREAUCRATIC CONTROL

SCOPE FOR HEALTH INQUIRY.

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —Having read with considerable diligence the pamphlet entitled “Educational Research in New Zealand” issued by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research, and listened to the address given by Professor Dr. C. E. Beeby at New Plymouth on Friday night I would like to make a few comments on the programme of work proposed by the council. , '

The pamphlet (and the professor) states that the primary need for New Zealand is “above all- else a national philosophy of education.” What this expression means to convey I frankly fail to understand. It is argued that New Zealand, because of its “size and isolation” has a set of educational problems peculiar to itself. Since modern life tends to make communication with the outside world progressively more rapid, the phrase “isolation” savours of the archaic, and will, I suggest, be resented by most New Zealanders. It seems to be implied that, we can find nd guidance from the works of educationalists in England or elsewhere. If we refuse to adopt the considered investigations which have been already made by more experienced and wiser heads than our Research Council, we will put ourselves into that “isolation” which the pamphlet deprecates. The pamphlet makes suggestions of subjects for research under eleven headings. To take the first as an example, it is suggested that the question of local versus centralised control of education is a subject demanding research. This battle was fought long ago, and the only object of renewing the controversy can be that the present council is in favour of central control. I gather- that the main objective of the council is to get control of the educational system at Wellington. Although verbal service is paid to the value of local effort, the whole declared policy of "the council confirms the impression that a very tight bureaucracy is contemplated. The representation of country interests is entirely unprovided for, and the influence of the towns is intended to be minimal, as already 10 to 15 of the 25 possible members of the local institutes are the nominees of the central council. It seems to be the intention to get a mass estimate of the school population after the Russian pattern, and force children into . vocations, irrespective of individual preferences.

I feel that Council of Educational Research wishes to profoundly alter English and our own traditions of education, and substitute a dictatorship of education so that our children’s ideas can be moulded into a pattern which is desirable from the council’s point of view. It seems to be unfair to call upon the many educational authorities who are stated to have given promises of giving all support within their power to the scheme to approve of the suggested arrangement as set down in the pamphlet. Such ' promises were obviously provisional, but they have been used in the pamphlet as the basis of its successful operation. Those consulted are asked to honour a blank cheque the magnitude of which is incalculable. It can be readily understood that 'this self constituted council, starting under the fashionable auspices of “Research” would acquire a dqminant position,, and would assume a role of an authoritative expert in all educational matters on the strength of the various “researches” it had conducted. I quite appreciate the great amount of gratuitous work that must have been done to , get the grant from the Carnegie Corporation, but I think most emphatically that' New Zealand should ponder, long before it allows an organisation so potentially subversive of our customary ideas' to become a power in our educational system. Educational methods are not' in the static state suggested, v-They evolve slowly, and basic principles do not change greatly from age to age. Indeed we have reason to be proud that our system has evolved and.changed according to the necessities of altered circumstances as they have arisen. It' is admitted that education cannot create mentality, and the facts tve learn are forgotten in a surprisingly short space of time. The real object of education is to develop habits of thought, and widen our human experiences by providing us with the mechanism wherewith to acquire a knowledge of humanity. I would suggest that the first subject for “research” is a constitution for the council itself which will be more in accord with our ideas of the meaning and purpose of education—in the primary stage at any rate not vocational and specialist, but general, forming the basis so that the child: can ultimately pursue that vocation which opens up when he or she is ready to enter it. In this respect it cannot be urged that our present system does not satisfy, in general, the calls made upon it. Although my criticism of the pamphlet is not favourable, I think that a fiveyear scheme of investigation of educational methods could be entered upon. There is plenty of material to review—the reports of educational authorities, and the suggestions that have been made by teachers who have spent their lives in contact with the actual results of educational methods. I might mention <1 recent publication “Order. out of Chaos,” which was also referred to by Dr. Beeby on Friday night, in which Mr. Banner has investigated the lack of uniformity in policy of the various education boards of New Zealand.

The suggested' headings under which research is contemplated do not contain a single subject that has not already been discussed, e.g. the grading of teachers, the examination system in New Zealand, the school entrance age. If has apparently not been considered the province of the Research Council to make any enquiries as to the effect of education on the health of the child. I suggest that an extremely valuable contribution could be made td the cause of education if it were determined how the health and physique of the growing child was affected by the long hours it has to spend at school, and suitable remedies could be devised if the facts were known. What are the underlying conditions of school life which bring it about that only 5 per cent, of the 1200 children attending three large primary schools in New Zealand are free from postural defect? In conclusion, I can find no justification in the pamphlet for the proposal to create a permanent “Council of Research” as an adjunct to our educatidhal system. If the council confined its programme to the five-year subsidy as contemplated by the .Carnegie grant, much valuable material mi|ht be assembled. We could usefully use the grant, but if it is used to saddle New Zealand with the incubus of a bureaucratic council which we will ultimately have to support, we should at any rate not accept without profoundest consideration a scheme which at its inception declares unequivocally its . freedom. from the slightest measure of popular control.—-I am, etc., PARENT. New Plymouth, April 13.