THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, JUNE 15, 1920. UNIFORM SCHOOL BOOKS.

Wairarapa Age, 15 June 1920, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, JUNE 15, 1920. UNIFORM SCHOOL BOOKS.

The question raised by Mr. D. Smith at the meeting of the Masterton A. and P. Association on Saturday last, ia one that affects all sections of the community. It has been discussed for years past by School Committees and Education Boards, but all attempts to reform the existing system have so far failed, \here is a Tooted prejudice among the inspectors of the Dominion against a uniformity in school-books. They argue that tho greater the variety in reading the wider the scope of education. But this argument is condemned by every phase of its application. There are about a dozen education districts in the Dominion, each possessing its own readers. The children of wealthy parents seldom remove from one district to another during the course of their primary training. Consequently they have no variety in reading, other than what they may secure from the school library. It is the working man who travels from one district to another and it is he who is penalised by the system at present in force. And his children do not derive a compensation for the change in school-books that is compelled in every district. With the "present high cost of production, school-books are an expensive item, and it is intolerable that parents should be required to make fresh purchases whenever they change from one district to another. The "School Journal," with the addition of the library and tho daily newspapers, affords all the variety in reading that is necessary to the primary education of the young. There is no earthly reason why there should not be uniform standard-" readers, history books, geographies, and works of science from one end of the Dominion to the other. Moreover, those books should be printed at the Government Printing Office, and if not supplied free to the children, should at least be furnished at cost price to the various School Committees. The changes in syllabus may require the issue of new books every few years, but the expense of these should be borne in the first instance by-tho State, and not by the individual. To compel parents to provide new sets of schoolbooks for their children every time they move from one district to another is to impose a hardship that, is entirely unwarranted. The newMinister proposes effecting reforms in the system of education. One of the first reforms he should undertake is to bring about a uniformity in schoolbooks, and to provide these books at the very lowest possible prices to parents. Statesmen and others are continually urging the importance of increased population. But if men and vwomen are to be penalised in every direction when they accept their national obligations, it will not be very long before there is an alarming diminution in the average birth-rate.