AGRICULTURE AND EDUCATION.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1640, 12 May 1925, Page 4

AGRICULTURE AND EDUCATION.

IN a speech the other day at the opening of a new school at Westown, the Minister of Education complained , rather bitterly of the practical failure of the, agricultural high school at Feilding. The school is a fine building with a considerable area of ground for agricultural work, the headmaster is an expert in agriculture, and yet parents will not take advantage of the opportunities offered, with the result that 80 per cent of the pupils are in the matriculation classes. It is a disappointing outcome of efforts made to give an agricultural bias to education. The fact is that parents can see possible careers for boys who have passed the matriculation examination, but none at all for pupils who have pottered about for a year or two on agricultural plots at a school. After an agricultural course at school a boy has ruined his chance of entering a profession, but has no practical knowledge of farming, and parents do not like to take the risk of such a state of affairs. 'lt is not easy to discover a satisfactory solution of the difficulty experienced in getting our young people to go on the land. It is not the business of the Education Department to train practical farmers, though it shows some tendency to meddle in the matter. The most hopeful proposal is for the Agricultural Department to start practical training schools for boys in which they would learn farming work and have a certain amount of instruction in theoretical matters. Boys should be admitled at 16 and have a two years' course. The knowledge these boys had obtained in their high school course would prove of value to them in their more practical work. If these schools prove a failure other steps may be necessary, but it is probable that they would secure a good number of pupils.