SECONDARY EDUCATION.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 3551, 25 April 1901, Page 4

SECONDARY EDUCATION.

To the Editor of the " Timaru Herald." Sir, —I have always been under the impression that there was a difference in quality and in quantity between the results of secondary education as achieved in District High Schools and in, High Schools proper, and that the difference in quality and quantity quite justified the great expense entailed in carrying on the latter class of school. After reading the account of the recent Conference on secondary education, and noticing the intense opposition on the part of the Timaru High School authorities to the establishment of a District High School, I am reluctantly compelled to relinquish my opinion. The High School authorities speak o£ secondary education in either kind of school being synonymous. From their own words I can come to no other conclusion but that the results, so far as scholarship are concerned, are the same. If ifc be a fact that the educational result is the same, why is the colony encumbered with the expense of carrying on High Schools ? Their abolition wotild set free! a large sum of money annually, and with it the) funds of the Department would be so increased that District High Schools could be established all over New Zealand, and at least ten times as many children receive the benefits of secondary education as receive it under the present system. At the end of last year there were 5159 in the primary schools in South Canterbury. For examination in secondary subjects, Waimate

presented 32 pupils, Temuka 23. Timaru High School would bring the number up to about 155. Thus, at present, only about 3 per cent, of the children in the district enjoy this advantage. Would it be possible to procure a comparison of the work in Timaru High School and in the two District High Schools with reference to outside examinations, sueh as Medical Preliminary,' Matriculation, Civil Service, etc? Such a return would be very interesting. I am, etc., VIGILANT.