EDUCATION IN NEW ZEALAND

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21085, 11 July 1938, Page 6

EDUCATION IN NEW ZEALAND

COMPARISON WITH OVERSEAS Simpler System Needed By Telegraph - AUCKLAND, July 9. “New Zealand has nothing to compare with the best in education over- , seas, but we have nothing as bad as the worst,” stated Mr G. R. Ashbridge, I general secretary to the New Zealand ‘ Educational Institute, who has return:cd after an absence of 12 months in I Europe. Canada and the United States. He added that educationists overseas found it difficult to understand why ; the Dominion, with its centralised adi ministrative system, was slow in moving | forward toward the unification of con- ! trol. The primary, secondary, and technical systems should never have been allowed to get so far out of step with one another, Mr Ashbridge said. The New Zealand system could be simplified considerably when unification was effected. In the United States and i Canada, the teachers all belong to one i organisation, as was the case in the Dominion when the New Zealand Educational Institute was established .in 1883. Teachers’ organisations i throughout the world were unanimous that classes should be reduced to 30. I Toronto <Canada) the kindergarten ' classes were limited to that number. ■ an innovation that would doubtless be i greatly appreciated by infant mistresses in New Zealand. | "The purchasing of school supplies iis an important function of school boards overseas,” Mr Ashbridge con- ! tinned. "In Toronto the Education Board operates a centralised purchasing department which delivers supplies to schools in its own trucks. The system of free text books, school and class libraries for children, typewriters and duplicators and clerical assistance provided for head teachers at overseas schools, leaves the New Zealand system with considerable leeway to make j up if it Is to be considered among the ’ best in the world These are but the , tools of trade and their early provision would be a sensible step in the direc- ' tion of securing greater efficiency in i teaching. Nevertheless, I must say that the method of educating rural c’ ildren in this country eclipses anything I saw in the United States.” The salaries paid to New Zealand teachers were generally lower than those paid to teachers in England, Canada and the United States. This was true particularly of headmasters and the commencing salaries at the lower end of the scale. American teachj ers were required to show the authorities each year that they had spent a minimum of 30 hours in study of an approved kind to enhance their ability as teachers. In New York the authorities had adopted a standard of efficient or not efficient, as was done in England. With unificatipn of control and a different salary scale it should be possible to classify teachers in New Zealand on a simpler basis.