CONTINUATION SCHOOLS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 14040, 25 October 1909, Page 3

CONTINUATION SCHOOLS.

ME, SIDEY'S BILL. Mr Sidey's Education Amendment BiU proposes to provide for the establishment of free and compulsory continuation schools. Many times Mr Sidey has advocated in the House of Representatives that the State should continue to guard its young people to a later age than 14 years, which is the age at which compulsion as to' attendance at the public schools ceases. Tin's is just about the age when particular attention to the mental and phyysical development of the rising generation is required, for at this period of life bad habits are frequently contracted. Mr Sidey has embodied his ideas on the subject in the form of a Bill so as to bring them under the attention of the Legislature in definite shape. He admits that it is rather too much to expect the Government to undertake a scheme of this kind forthwith, as of recent years expenditure on education lias been so heavy, but he considers that if we are to keep pace with other countries some such scheme a* his must not he long delayed. His Bill provides for three classes of continuation schools. '

(1) General continuation schools, in which the instruction will be mainly English, commercial, correspondence, book-keeping, domestic science, duties of citizenship, hygiene, gymnastics, and militarv drill.

(2) Trade and industrial continuation schools for the teaching of use of tools and machinery, drawing, and instruction in sciences underlying various trades. (3) Rural continuation schools for instruction in the branch of agriculture or raining suited to the particular locality. The hours are not to be later than 8 p.m., but such school may he held in the day time, their fixing being left to the managers, composed of representatives of the education board and one or more of the school committees of the district, as well as of industrial associations of employers and employees. The compulsory provisions make attendance for three hours a week for 40 weeks a year necessary on the part of boys between 14 aud 18. and girls between 14 aud IG. living within two miles of a school, unless lip or she is attending at another school for at least the hours just mentioned as the minimum for a continuation school, or unless he was previously bound to work for an employer during continuation school hours.