Thames Star WEDNESDAY, NOV. 28, 1934. EDUCATIONAL CONFUSION.

Thames Star, Volume LXV, Issue 19271, 28 November 1934, Page 2

Thames Star

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 28, 1934. EDUCATIONAL CONFUSION.

"With malice toward* noao; with charity for all; with firmaooo in th* m God gtvw u* to • th* risht."— Lincoln.

The disturbing result of the Education Department's exclusion of five-year-olds from the schools is now becoming increasingly apparent, and it seems that the worst fears of teachers and parents are to be realised. The boomerang the Department threw when it made this important change in educational policy is returning with unexpected force, and victims are being mowed down mercilessly. At a time when the Government is able to partly restore civil servants' wage cuts and gild the lily with the promise of a further restoration, and when a teachers' training college is to be reopened, it seems unjust and unnecessary to continue the exclusion of the five-year-olds, which is resulting in confusion and dismissals among the teaching staffs, a belated start in the children's education, and the development in many towns of private kindergarten schools. There is a difference of opinion among educational experts about the need for beginning education at the ago of five, but the majority opinion is that school at that age is necessary. But why children of all ages should suffer because of the rapid transfer of teachers and the resultant confusion in tuition is difficult to understand. The ridiculous changes that will take place next year owing to the down-grading of schools show how idiotic the grading system is when applied to present conditions. It can only be compared with a motion picture film shown in the reverse way and ruu through at three times its normal pace. Meanwhile those teachers without classes as a result of the down-grading and who cannot be placed in other schoolsare to be dismissed, admittedly regardless of length of service and efficiency. The decimation of a wartime force was not more brutal or stupid than this. There may be need for economies in education, but in making these the Department must avoid penalising the present school going genei'ation and must retain tligoodwill of the teachers.