TYPES OF SCHOOLS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 194, 15 August 1936, Page 7

TYPES OF SCHOOLS

TEACHERS’ VIEWPOINT intermediate classes ■•first THINGS FIRST” I attitude of the primary teaching service toward any move for the e ? b V Shment of more intermediate schools in the Dominion is defined in me phrase “first things first” by the execiitiv’e of the New Zealand Educaonal Institute, in a statement it has issued. The executive states that * S a lear pre-occupation ' V| th the needs of those children of II years and over, who are to be taught in intermediate schools will lead to the relative neglect both ot those children of the same age who remain in primary schools, and of the great body of five to 11-year-olds who wifi be unaffected by the change. “It is a commonplace that the younger the child, the greater this susceptibility to environmental influences, and consequently the greater his need for the best possible conditions for living and learning,” continues- the statement. “Yet precisely -Jf e opposite principle has been embodied in our school organisation. The six-year-old is taught in much largei classes than the 16-year-old, his school building is almost invariably inferior, and frequently much less healthy, and he is relatively starved of educations/ material in the way of equipment and •books. Establishment Opposed "The primary teaching service is firmly of the opinion that reform should begin here, and would feel itself forced to oppose the establishment of further intermediate schools if this in any way’ hindered or interfered with efforts on behalf of the younger children in our primary schools.” The statement adds that the desirability or otherwise of the intermediate school type of organisation is, of course, a separate issue, but em;«.iasises that the institute has never reversed its decision to support the three-year intermediate school. Where intermediate schools are established, it is urged that in conformity with the policy' formerly advanced by the Education Department. the course should not be less than a three-yeai one. Unified Control The executive is strongly in agreement with the view of the Atmore report, that wherever there is suffieiof pupils the intermediate school should be a separate institution and not attached to a post-primary school. It is also definitely of the opinion that where intermediate schools are established they should be under the jurisdiction of education boards, and not of post-primary school boards of governors. “The barriers between primary, secondary and technical schools are the source of many evils and much educational waste, and the ideal is unification of control,” it is stated. "To place intermediate schools under the control of secondary school boards seems to the executive a step in the opposite direction, and only likely to perpetuate the historical bifurcation of elementary’ and secondary education.” The executive also urges that where a primary school is decapitated its qualitative staffing should remain unaltered. and states that it is concerned that no primary school teacher should suffer professionally or financially through this or any other educational reorganisation.