QUESTION OF EXTENDED SCHOOL HOLIDAYS

Waikato Independent, Volume XLIV, Issue 6173, 15 March 1948, Page 4

QUESTION OF EXTENDED SCHOOL HOLIDAYS

THE EDITOR’S COMMENT.

RECENTLY it was suggested that the school holidays at the end of the year should extend over two complete months of the Summer. This idea, born, no doubt, as a result of the unfortunate poliomyelitis epidemic, has met with varying opinions. We noted that the Minister of Education, in replying to the suggestion of extension, stressed the need of a full year’s work to cope with the heavy curriculum now covered in children’s education and to maintain a high standard of education.

Of course, a longer Summer holiday, if it were associated with shorter breaks between terms, might not mean a reduction in school hours over the whole year, but this is another matter which might some time be argued on its own merits. The point Mr McCombs implied was that education authorities have enough to think about already in regard to the arrangement of school courses to worry about less essential issues. The curriculum, as the Minister said, is inded a very full one, and even if Mr McCombs or his department wished to enlarge it, great difficulties would lie in the way. Many authorities believe, moreover, that too many subjects have crept into the work of primary and secondary classes even now, and that thorough grounding to suit pupils for adult vocations or for higher education might be the better obtained by narrowing rather than broadening the range of subjects. If there is room for debate on this particular issue, as, indeed, recent discussion by educationists proves to be the case, there can at least be none as far as the problem of fitting in fresh courses at the moment is concerned. Neither staff nor accommodation is available for the purpose, so if first things are to be kept first, then experiments ought to be given a wellearned rest. The Minister, it appears, has a ready appreciation of this truth, for his emphasis on the need to maintain a high standard of education rather than jockey round with holidays and the curriculum is too clear to be misunderstood. . CARS AND CRIMINALS The law has lagged in denying habitual criminals access to speedy methods o ftravel and Mr Justice Fair at Gisborne has emphasised the need for power to disqualify criminals from owning or operating motor vehicles. The anomaly is a glaring one today when high-speed cars and good roads give the wrongdoer ample opportunities for criminal tours on a grand scale and for a rapid escape from detection. But the Judge could have gone further and referred to the need for much more severe punishment for those who “convert” or steal cars, often with the intention of further law-breaking. Certainly criminals should not be able to own or operate cars. That, however, would be' incomplete if the punishment for the seizing and using of other people’s cars l'emains wholly inadequate. Theft is theft whether the article taken is a person’s purse or his motorcar, and when the latter act leads to destruction of property and further law-breaking the obvious remedy is a prison term without the option of a fine. The leeway of the ltjst 30 years has to be made up; the law has failed to recognise how modern transport methods are an aid and encouragement to crime.