The Timaru Herald TUESDAY, AUGUST 27, 1929. THE SILENCE OF MR ATMORE.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18354, 27 August 1929, Page 8

The Timaru Herald TUESDAY, AUGUST 27, 1929. THE SILENCE OF MR ATMORE.

Six months ngo, the Minister of Education undertook a hurried tour of New Zealand because lie could not delay making an immediate Ministerial pronouncement on the scheme he had evolved for the reorganisation of New Zealand's national system of education. All over the count.y, the Minister declared, education authorities were badgering him to establish junior high schools. Subsequent events, or should we say, absence of events, have shown that the Minister was merely engaged in kite-flying. Tie was sounding the people to discover if the Government would enhance its popularity, if the new Ministry followed the course pursued by Sir .Tames Parr, who in the most sweeping fashion repeatedly declared that his educational policy was endorsed by the highest educational opinion in the English-speaking world! Such a claim, as subsequent investigations have revealed, was mere talk. Unhappily for the new Minister of Education the hints he had allowed to drop were interpreted by the rural community as another attempt to engage in educational reform hv concentrating activities in the big cities. It was not surprising that the farmers’ organisations and the rural community displayed a sturdy opposition to any so-called educational reform that would undermine the usefulness and status of the primary school. There has been, of course, too great a tendency in the past to succumb to the glitter of Americanisms. Much has been said of the wonderful educational institutions in’ the cities of the United States. One educationist, who returned to New Zealand a strong advocate of the junior high school, told enthusiastically of the educational doings in some of the biggest cities, hut sd far, no convert to the American idea, has bothered to mention (and this is where the farmers of New Zealand are interested), the shameful neglect of rural education in the United States. “So backward are same States,” to quote “ The Next Step in National Education” which is the report of Viscount Haldane’s Committee, “that more than eleven million rural pupils are taught by untrained teachers, and more than three million pupils in oneteacher (Schools are under the Control of teachers who have not themselves finished a high school course.” This is bad enough, but there arc at least three thousand rural schools in the United States which have no permanent teachers at all. The glitter of the American city is all very well; hut it will not help New Zealand, where the prosperity of every section of the community reposes in the fortunes of the man on the land. Moreover, it can he said without fear of contradiction, that the junior high school is at best an educational expedient, adaptable only in great cities, where the pressure is so intense from the ever-increasing roll numbers of the primary school. Even in New Zealand, the country schools are grievously hampered, not only by shamefully unfair regulations governing the strength of the staffing, but in many cases by the quality of the instruction given by teachers coming straight from training colleges to undertake the impossible task of teaching six standards, as well as two or three primer classes. The revolt of the rural people interested in education is long overdue; indeed, if the Minister has money to spare he should concentrate on giving the rural school population a fairer deal. Obviously the question of finance and the protests of the rural community completely upset the Minister’s plans, notwithstanding the Minister’s amazing statement that the introduction of the junior high school system would involve little additional expense. The opponents of the scheme, however, drew the Minister’s attention to a little experiment being carried out just close to his own electorate. In Blenheim, a junior high school to house 280 pupils was established at the cost of about £19,000, plus extra cost (annual) for staff and allowances, which is easily some ten thousand pounds in excess of the amount that would have been required under the existing organisation. Eight junior high school experiments have been launched in New Zealand to provide for 2300 pupils. These involved a capital expenditure of something approaching £120,000, plus about £SOO per year additional expenditure per school for staffing and allowances. Some idea of the total cost of the junior high school system for the whole of New Zealand can be obtained by noting these experiments and taking into consideration the. fact that there are about 15,000 pupils in the srh and 6th standards of the primary schools of New Zealand. The Minister’s silence in view of all the circumstances is not surprising, but no reasonable excuse can he offered for the extraordinary attitude of “do nothing” which the Minister and his Department have adopted since * a significant silence was imposed on the Minister; apparently by some higher authority. I