BY POST

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 83, 8 April 1933, Page 8

BY POST

NOVEL EDUCATION. NEW SOUTH WALES SYSTEM. .'SYDNEY. March 30. The largest school in New South Wales to-day is one in which the teacher never sees his pupils, nor the children their classmates—the Education Department’s Correspondence School. From modest beginnings in 1916. when it was founded as something new in education systems bv Mr. S. H. Smith, who later became Director of Education, it has grown to one of the most important activities. In 1916 one teacher was sending out weeklv postal instructions to a few scholars in the far outback. To-day 126 teachers are required to cof>e with the task of instructing 5229 students. The fact that there have been 850 enrolments this year speaks for the progress that has been mad*-. Goqe are the days when children rode or walked many miles to the schools. To-day, in New South Wales, no home is too remote for the aid of the postal teacher. When the idea was first mooted critics feared that it would never be a success. Contact between teacher and pupil, they held, was essential for the child to be given knowledge in a form its untutored mind could assimilate. Results, however, have exceeded expectations of those who favoured the schema. While comparisons are difficult. it is found that the postal student keeps well up with the ordinary school student. Primary examinations prove this, and the accomplis^ments of postal scholars who pass on to the secondary schools give further confirmation. The system is simple. Each correspondence pupil is provided with three •■xercise books, and tuere is a continuity of study. One book can be with : the teacher for correction, another in j rhe post with fresh lessons, and the ! third with the child. Text books, i printed leaflets. and supplementary • typewritten sheets, explain the lessons • in a clear and concise manner, so that i the child, or at any rate, the parent who is assisting, can readily understand. Every child has an index card, showing progress, while a system of rotary colours reveals whether he is retarded, up to the standard, or advanced. At present the correspondence school is concerned mainly with primary instruction. Having completed this most of the children arn of an age when they can travel or board near a school. Where necessary the courses are extended. To be eligible to join the school a child must live three miles from one of the State schools, and the system has been so perfected that apparent lack of competition does not lead to retarded progress. Teachers working under the postal system declare that they often ger to know their pupils better than they do th-> members of the large classes they insthruct personally in the big scnools. Personal letters between the urnolars and the teachers are encouraged, and the children are invited to visit their “schoolroom’’ should tiyy come to Sydney for a holiday.