AMALGAMATION OF SCHOOLS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 14 September 1936, Page 4

AMALGAMATION OF SCHOOLS.

(The Editor.) Sir, —Masterton is indeed unfortunate that one of its proudest possessions, the Technical School, should be at the disposal of our present Secondary Education Board. The indecent haste of the Board, at its last meeting, to desert the sinking ship would be ludicrous if it were not so pitiful. > The Technical School belongs to the people of Masterton, who should certainly have as much say in its disposal as a small board, several of whom evidently do not know their own mind from one. meeting to another. The argument raised by some board members that 76-1 per cent of pupils at the High School are pursuing a deadend course is merely a boomerang. The same members propose to force the Technical School pupils, now following a definite and valuable course, into this dead-end course.

Amalgamation is a myth, and cannot satisfactorily operate. The real High School is the 234 per cent, and as far apart from Technical education as the two poles}* and rightly should be so; tile other 764 per cent should be in a Technical School, and an entirely separate one at that. As the innate snobbishness of a small section of the public clamours for the shadowy social distinction of the High School, as Avell as the valuable substance of Technical training, the Technical School must be wrecked, and our noble Board meekly proceeds to do this shabby deed. The Technical School, in keeping sport in its proper perspective, and concentrating on educating and training its students, has acquired a splendid equipment and also a substantial bank balance; this has apparently excited the envy of its opponents, and has no doubt contributed to its downfall.

In conclusion, as a member of the Technical School Association, I, for one, wish to apologise to the. parents of pupils for what part I had in commending candidates for their approval—candidates who accepted our support and promised to fight for separate schools, but who did not fight. They did not run away, but simply lay down and surrendered. —I am, etc., B. lORNS. Bunny Street, Masterton.