The Wanganui Chronicle SATURDAY, JULY 25, 1925. NATIONAL EDUCATION.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19367, 25 July 1925, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle SATURDAY, JULY 25, 1925. NATIONAL EDUCATION.

The annual report of the Minister for Education on the condition and progress of the work of his Department for the past year is admittedly a record of achievement. Sir James Parr may in the exuberance of his enthusiasm, have made mistakes. but these have been the errors of indiscretion, not the blunderings of incompetence. Few people will deny, on reviewing wh; at has ben accomplished since he took charge of the portfolio of Education, that he has earned the compliment paid to him by Mr. Isitt in the House, of Representatives on Thursday—that he has been the best Minister for Education we have ever had.

The most valuable part of the Minister’s work undoubtedly has been the persistent effort he has directed to the task of creating in the public mind a new attitude towards national education. The public to-day is really interested in education, and keen about it. This interest is not confined merely to the schools, but to secondary and higher education. The Minister’s diagnosis of the public’s requirements in this respect is sound, and he is deserving of every encouragement. If there is any aspect of his administration which to some seems to call for criticism it is a tendency towards the centralisation of responsibility. The inspectors have been, centralised under the Department. Formerly they were servants of the boards. The teachers have been centralised in so far as grading and salary is concerned. There are excellent reasons for these two changes. The inspectors by frequent interchanges are enabled to get in touch with national conditions, and hence there is being developed a national standard. The teachers are now assured of better conditions as regard salary and promotion. The danger of such a tendency towards centralisation is that it. may be allowed to go too far. Sir James Parr, we know, is personally keen about the stimulation of local interest and activity, and his policy all along has been to enlist the active support and energies of the community spirit in education. The United States, from which country, by the way, we have taken in the past an overdose of inspiration, sets a useful example in the matter of community interest. The country schools in America are the centres of the village community system, and the interest of the parents is active and keen. In the growth of parents associations in New Zealand we have a. promising development of the community interest, which is a very healthy sign. It should be encouraged in every possible way, and for this reason we hope to see in the future an extension of the subsidy system by which local enterprise for the benefit of the schools receives practical recognition. It has been well said that no nation can afford not to spend money on education. A welleducated nation is the strongest bulwark against such social evils as Communism.

ith the development of the good roads policy in New Zealand we hope to see a rapid extension of the consolidated schools system, which has now passed its experimental stage. The consolidated school, which achieves the abolition of small isolated one-teacher schools, offers to country children all the advantages of a modem city school, with first-class equipment and a. full stall of trained teachers. To some people this may savour of a form of centralisation and an attack on the community spirit. V e should prefer to call it concentration of effort in the interests of the children.

One of the biggest problems the Minister has had to face is the replacement of old and worn-out schools with modern buildings satisfying the requirements of the best principles in education. I o achieve this he had laid down a poliev of gradual and systematic replacement spread over a period. The results of that policy are already apparent in the number of handsome school buildings that have been completed. For this result the Minister is entitled to hearty congratulations. When the University Commission has completed its investigation of the state of higher education in this country the -Minister will be able to approach the overdue task of overhauling our university system. In this he will be opposed by a reactionary element, but lie can rest assured of the support of the public if in whatever he may propose is to make, the university a more tangible and practical part of our system of national education.