TOO MUCH MONEY WASTEFULLY SPENT ON EDUCATION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18188, 22 June 1927, Page 10

TOO MUCH MONEY WASTEFULLY SPENT ON EDUCATION.

HON M. COHEN ADDRESSES SCHOOL COMMITTEES.

“ Gradually there is creeping into our schools a base, weak, miserable imitation of Americanisms,” declared the Hon Mark Cohen, M.L.C., in an address to the Canterbury School Committees’ Association last evening on “ Some Aspects of National Education.” “The time has come when we should stand firmly by the well of English, undefiled.”

Mr Cohen recalled that he had been responsible for the formation of the School Committees’ Association in Otago in the middle eighties. It took many years, he said, to get rid of the old cumulative vote for school committees and get their present system. The interests of the child were, he pointed out, paramount to every other consideration. That applied to transfers by teachers from school to school as well as to other matters. He had heard a whisper that a comprehensive Education Bill would be brought down next session and that it would contain some very startling provisions, including a reversion to the provincial system and the abolition of the ward system. Possibly there would be an extension of the term of office of the committees. Politics entered too largely into the administration of education. It was responsible very often for a waste of public money and for things being done that were not in the best interests of education in the Dominion. There was a large amount of overlapping going on, and it had to be stopped. New Zealand was spending far too much money wastefully on education. He was speaking solely in defence of the primary system of education. If the primary system was not adequate then the superstructure must be defective. A proper and adequate system of primary education was the birthright of every child. He strongly condemned script writing. The trouble to-day was that children were not taught to write ! properly. There was too great a tendency today to watch the clock closely. Young people were paid too much; they had too much money to spend, and were not sufficiently sensible of their responsibilities. He paid a tribute to the work the technical colleges had done, but he said the instructors at the technical colleges were not yet sufficiently qualified. There was still too much overlapping between the technical schools and the high schools. He would not permit any primary school to be built that held more than 500 children. There should be not more than fortv pupils in a class. South Africa led the way by establishing classes of thirty-five. The Department was now moving in the right direction in this matter. Progress, however, was fearfully slow. There were scores of primary schools that had less than four acres of ground. Vet the secondary schools could get all the ground they needed. He considered that a woman whose husband was able to support her should not be employed in the schools. The junior high schools were, he thought, on their trial. He did not believe in everything American being imported and held up as worthy of imitation. If the pruning knife had to be applied to education he urged that the primary schools should be the last to be touched. They were the great gift of the State to the ordinary people. Mr Cohen was accorded a vote of thanks.