AGRICULTURE AND EDUCATION.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18620, 16 July 1930, Page 12

AGRICULTURE AND EDUCATION.

NECESSARY SUBJECT FOR ALL PUPILS. DENMARK QUOTED AS AN EXAMPLE. In the report of the Select Committee on Education, which was presented yesterday to the House of Representatives by the Minister of Education (Hon. H. Atmore), extended reference is made to the importance of agriculture as a subject in the school curriculum. The Committee expresses the view that agriculture is a necessary subject for all pupils. It offers the opinion that the prosperity of Denmark is in part due to its schools, and that the schools of the Dominion ought to play an important part in bringing about a similar result in this country. The Committee expresses the view that agriculture has been included in all branches of our education system • “on paper”-—but it has not had that practical application or emphasis that it ought to have, except in a few isolated cases. Teaching of agriculture has not been very successful, and* there are two main causes for the failure; —•

(1) The low estimate .set upon its value in the marking scales drawn up by the University and the Education Department for the scholarship and other school examinations. (2) The resulting absence of any dynamic convictions as to its importance on the part of the teachers, and their lack of any real knowledge of the subject.

This branch of learning should, in the opinion of the Committee, not be strictly confined to pupils intending to go on the land. "The object of teaching agriculture in the schools should be two-fold. In the first place, it should aim to give every pupil an adequate conception of th2 country’s dependence upon the farming industry, to elevate the vocation of agriculture to a position of dignity and respect second to none in the Dominion, and inculcate a'genuine love of the soil, and a reasonably sufficient theoretical and practical knowledge of the broad fundamental principles that underlie its successful agricultural and pastoral exploitation and conservation. “In the second place, upon this general foundation there should be organised a Do-minion-wide system of specialised agricultural education for those boys and girls who can be attracted, from urban as well as rural areas, to enter upon vocations connected with the soil. "It is therefore highly necessary that there should be established throughout New Zealand a system of agricultural education in which the provision made for the theoretical and practical study of this vital subject shall be at least equal to the provision made for the study of those subjects which lead to the vocations of commerce, law, medicine, engineering and the like. . . i

What the Committee desires to see accomplished is a complete shifting of emphasis for the great bulk of our children from academic studies to those which relate to the primary industries.”

The Committee states that the Junior and Senior National Scholarships were instituted as an adjunct to the free place system, and that the original intention was that the fund should be utilised for the purpose of providing “boarding scholarships” for country children who were unable to take advantage of the provisions made for free railway carriage daily to and from secondary schools. Under the competitive marks system this intention has been completely defeated. As for the University Entrance Scholarships, the Committee states that the fact that the higher leaving certificate now entitles the holder to free university education has converted these scholarships, in effect, into maintenance bursaries, and not a few of them were won by pupils whose parents are in more than comfortable circumstances.”

Another point of criticism is that the scholarship marking scales are loaded in favour of academic subjects, agriculture having only 200 marks compared with 400 for languages. These scholarships cost nearly £16,000 per annum, and the Committee is convinced that this large annual sum should be restored to the original purpose of assisting deserving country children, and the children of parents in moderate and straightened circumstances to obtain the benefits of higher education. It is further of opinion that the disbursement of this fund may properly be entrusted to the local educational authorities, in consultation with the Senior Inspector for each education district.

The Committee is agreed that the benefit of the bursary fund should extend to all children in New Zealand.