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1930. NEW ZEALAND
RECESS EDUCATION COMMITTEE (REPORT OF THE, ON EDUCATIONAL REORGANIZATION IN NEW ZEALAND). (Mr. BODKIN, Chairman.)
Presented to the House of Representatives, and ordered to be printed.
ORDERS OF REFERENCE. Extracts from the Journals of the House of Representatives. Friday, the Bth Day of November, 1929. Ordered, " That the Education Committee have power to sit (luring the recess and for fourteen days after the commencement of next session, at such times and at such places as the Committee may see fit; with power to call for persons, papers, and records ; three to form a quorum ; and with power to consider all matters relating to education and public instruction generally, the training of teachers, higher education, technical education, the education and care of mentally deficient children, manual instruction, and any other matters affecting education ; the Committee to report to the House before the expiration of fourteen days after the commencement of next session, and to have power meantime, where it thinks fit to do so, to advise the Government from time to time on any of the aforesaid matters." —(Hon. Mr. Atmore.) Tuesday, the 15th Day of July, 1930. Ordered, " That the Recess Committee, which was appointed by Order of Reference dated the Bth November, 1929, and directed to report fourteen days after the commencement of the present session, be revived and have power to sit again ; the Committee to report to the House on or before the 15th day of August, 1930, with power to report from time to time on or before that date ; and, further, that all reports, resolutions, and acts of the said Committee shall be as valid and effectual as if the said Committee had by the said Order of Reference been originally empowered to report on or before the said 15th day of August, and to sit until that date."—(Hon. Mr. Atmore.)
CONSTITUTION OF THE COMMITTEE. Mr. W. A. Bodkin (Chairman). Mr. Henry Holland. Hon. Harry Atmore (Minister of Education). Colonel T. W. McDonald. Mr. G. C. C. Black. Mr. A. J. Murdoch. Rev. Clyde Carr. Mr. G. R. Sykes. Mr. Peter Fraser. Mr. J. A. Young. Secretary to the Committee, Mr. W. I. Deavoll.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE. Chapter I.—lntroduction .. . . . . . . .. . . . . 2 Chapter II. —Public Education in New Zealand : its Historical Foundations . . . . . 3 SECTION I—THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. Chapter 111. —Termination of Primary Education at 11 plus Years of Age . . . . . . . . 9 Chapter IV. —Compulsory Post-primary Education to 15 Years . . . . . . . . . . 11 Chapter V. —Exploratory Courses (11 plus to 15 Years) to determine Aptitudes for Further Full-time Education (for Continuers), or for Employment (for Leavers), accompanied, wherever possible, by continued Evening Education . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Chapter VI. —Consolidation of Schools and Classes. . .. . . .. . . . . 24 Chapter VII. —Scholarship Funds to be used for Maintenance Bursaries to assist Deserving Pupils to continue their Post-primary Education to Higher Stages .. . . . . .. 27 Chapter Vlll.—Prominence to bo given to Agriculture in all School Curricula . . . . . . 29 SECTION 2.—ADMINISTRATION. Chapter IX.—Unification of Administrative Organization and Control within each Area Unit of Educational Authority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Chapter X. —Readjustment of Functions of Central and Local Educational Authorities . ■ • • 48 Chapter XI. —A National Teaching Service . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 SECTION 3.—POST-SECONDARY EDUCATION. Chapter XII. —University Reorganization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Chapter XIII. —The Training of Teachers . . . . . . . . . . .. . . 77 Chapter XIV. —Higher Technical Education . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Chapter XV. —School Leaving Certificates and University Entrance Examination . . . . 98 Chapter XVI. —State Financial Assistance for Deserving Students desirous of proceeding to Higher Education 108 Chapter XVII. —Organization of Education (including Post-primary Education) by Local Education Authorities . . . . . . -. . . . . . . . . 113 SECTION 4—HEALTH AND DISABILITY. Chapter XVIII. —The School Medical Service .. .. .. .. .. .. ..117 Chapter XIX. —The School Dental Service . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Chapter XX. —Open-air Schools .. .. . . . . • • • . . ■ . ■ 123 Chapter XXI. —Home-work and Corporal Punishment . . . . . . . . . . 126 Chapter XXII. —Special Classes for Backward Children .. . . . . . . . . . 127 Chapter XXIII. —The Education of the Deaf .. .. .. .. .. ..129 SECTION S.—GENERAL. Chapter XXIV. —Religious Instruction in State Schools .. .. .. .. . . 131 Chapter XXV. —The League of Nations . . .. .. .. . . . . . . 135 Chapter XXVI. —Education of Native Races . . .. . . .. .. . . 136 Chapter XXVII. —Teachers' Superannuation .. . . . . .. . . . . .. 136 Chapter XXVIII. —Contact with Educational Administration Abroad .. .. .. .. .. 138 Chapter XXIX. —Council of Education .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..143 Chapter XXX. —The Change-over .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 143 Thanks .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ■. 146 Summary of Resolutions and Recommendations .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 147 Appendix ~ .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 155
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REP OB T. CHAPTER I. —INTRODUCTION. Since the enactment of the Education Act, 1914, there has been no fundamental change in the organization of the New Zealand education system. In the other Britannic States, the United States of America, and Europe important developments have taken place since the Great War with respect to types of schools and curricula, the age of transference from one type to another, and other matters ; but New Zealand, which prior to that great cataclysm led the Empire in opening the doors of higher educational opportunity to the children of the nation, has been content to see these other States not only imitate, but improve upon, her pre-war enterprise. It is confidently believed that the reforms proposed in this report, if carried into effect, will once more place the Dominion in the forefront of educational achievement. Prom the point of view of administrative cost, as well as of harmonious and efficient working, it has long been manifest that a reorganization of the existing system of control by a central Education Department and local Primary, Secondary, and Technical School Boards was overdue. Many proposals have been made during the past fifty-three years for the reformation of the system. These have ranged from extreme centralization of administration upon the lines adopted by the Australian States, on the one hand, to the subdivision of New Zealand into almost completely autonomous local education areas, on the other, each with an education system and a Director of Education of its own, and with, power of local rating. The Committee believes that the proposals contained in this report will afford a basis for an equitable, efficient,' and economic readjustment of the complementary, but not necessarily conflicting, principles of national and local control, both operating within appropriate spheres, and upon lines which are at the same time educationally sound. It is a cause for extreme national satisfaction that education has never been a matter of party politics in New Zealand, and the recommendations made in this report are in complete harmony with that tradition, in that they constitute the unanimous and considered judgment of a parliamentary Committee upon which all three existing political parties are represented. Conducting their investigations wholly from a. national point of view, the members of the Committee have sought to exercise a proper discrimination in assessing the relative value of the evidence tendered by the numerous witnesses, and to judge the issue, in cases where conflict of testimony occurred, from a Dominion rather than a sectional standpoint. The exercise of this judicial function has not always been easy, for, though education in New Zealand has never been a battleground of party politics, it has never been other than an arena of conflict between centralist and provincialist factions, and sectional interests in relation to the separate organization of primary, secondary, technical, and university education, strongly vested in local patriotism. Thus it has been said, and not without justification, that we have in existence in the Dominion to-day not one system of education, but four systems —all separately organized, and not only largely uncoordinated, but to a considerable extent in competition with one another, and unnecessarily and wastefully multiplying services which ought to be correlated and, in some respects, unified. In assessing the weight of evidence tendered by the representatives of these several interests the Committee has realized a deep sense of its responsibility. As a Select Committee of the national Legislature, its members have endeavoured to envisage education as a continuous process in which at all stages those responsible for its organization and administration should work together with the maximum both of harmony and of efficiency. It has felt itself compelled, therefore, in the exercise of its judical functions, to place more reliance upon the evidence of some witnesses than of others. It has,
Need for reform,
Various proposals examined.
Unanimity of report,
Judicial functions of Committee.
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moreover, had before it authoritative reports upon modern educational developments overseas, and particularly in Great Britain, to which it has attached great weight. These considerations it feels constrained to emphasize at the very outset of its report, because it is strongly of opinion that the recommendations herein made, covering, as they do, the whole range of our education system, from the primer classes to the University, must be taken together as a comprehensive and coordinated scheme of national educational reorganization, and not a group of piecemeal proposals each independent of the rest. The unanimity of its findings also, it hopes, will conduce to their more ready endorsement by all educationists and by the public at large. CHAPTER II.—PUBLIC EDUCATION IN NEW ZEALAND: ITS HISTORICAL FOUNDATIONS. The first educational legislation passed in New Zealand was the Native Trust Ordinance, 1844, a measure of Governor Fitzroy's relating to Native education which, though accorded the Royal assent, his successor, Governor Grey, declined to put into operation. Three years later, however, at Sir George Grey's instance, the Education Ordinance, 1847, was passed, which empowered the New Zealand Government " to establish and maintain schools, and to inspect schools, and to contribute towards the support of schools otherwise established." But the exercise of these powers was almost entirely confined to the allocation of land endowments and money grants to certain denominations for the establishment and maintenance of schools. No state system of education, or even of inspection of schools, was inaugurated under the statute. In this way the denominational system was at first accorded legal status and State aid in New Zealand. Some of our oldest and most important secondary schools owe their foundation to grants made by Sir George Grey under this Ordinance. But even before these Ordinances were passed, in 1842, in Nelson, under the leadership of Matthew Campbell, the Hon. Alfred Domett, and others, the foundation of a public-schools organization was laid, upon which the Nelson School Society, a voluntary association modelled upon the British and Foreign School Society, quickly established an effective system of free, unsectarian, public education. This system was already in efficient operation at the time when the above-mentioned Ordinance of 1847 was enacted, and, in 1849, Domett, who had personal knowledge of its efficiency, was largely responsible for inducing the New Munster (or southern New Zealand) Provincial Council, then newly set up, to refuse to administer the denominational system within, its territory, and to urge the adoption of free, secular, and compulsory public education as the only sound basis of a national system. However, although Domett was supported by an overwhelming majority of the Council, Lieut.-Governor Eyre, Grey's southern understudy, refused to allow the proposed Bill to be introduced into the Council, and there the matter remained. Consequently in the several settlements then springing into existence the provision of schooling was for a number of years almost entirely a matter for local effort. During this period the denominational system took firm root in Auckland (under Grey's Ordinance), Canterbury, and Otago (where it was at first almost wholly Anglican and Presbyterian respectively), while in Wellington the educational needs of the settlers were met by private teachers, and in Nelson the public system above referred to was extended and strengthened. When the new Provincial Governments were established in 1853 nothing definite was laid down as to whether education was to be the domain of the Colonial or of 1 the Provincial Legislatures ; but Grey's action in calling the latter together first, and their immediate appropriation of the field, laid the foundation of the present New Zealand system of local administration in education. The provincial systems then set up confirmed, for the most part, the earlier local organizations, while Native education continued to be administered by the Colonial Government under the denominational system. The later provinces adopted, in general, and so far as their resources allowed, systems based on those established by their older and larger neighbours. I*
Complete educational reorganization proposed.
First educational legislation.
Proposals of Hon Alfred Domett.
Provincial education systems.
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Very early in the provincial period two facts began to emerge with unmistakable clarity : (1) That the Nelson public-school system was economical, efficient, and harmonious in its working ; (2) that the then existing denominational systems were admittedly unsatisfactory. It is indeed significant that alone amongst the provincial education laws the Nelson Education Act, 1857, remained unchanged throughout the twenty years during which education was controlled by the provinces, whereas in all the other provinces a more or less definite movement set in towards the free, secular, and compulsory system. In 1867 Native elementary education was removed from denominational control and placed by Parliament under that of the Department of Native Affairs. In 1869 the attention of the Colonial Legislature was further forcibly directed to the diversity and general inadequacy of the provision made by the provinces as a whole for the education of European children, particularly in the North Island, although even in Otago, where the actual organization was admittedly good, the system of charging fees for schooling resulted in scarcely more than 50 per cent, of the children of school age being enrolled in the schools. A long struggle then began between the centralists and the provincialists over the education system, the end of which is now, we hope, in sight. Eight years later, after a protracted debate extending throughout the parliamentary session, the famous compromise effected by the Education Act, 1877, was enacted. This statute, as passed, was anything but the ordered organization of a national system of education such as had been envisaged in the Bill originally brought down by the Hon. Sir Charles Bowen. This Bill, drafted with the aid of Dr. John Hislop's logical mind and ripe experience, contemplated a system of divided control, with a small measure of local rating on a capitation basis, under which seven-eighths of the total expenditure was to be provided by the Central Government and one-eighth by the local education authorities. Broadly speaking, the Bill laid it down that the professional side should be recognized as the special domain of the central Department, including the training, certification, and classification of teachers, and the control of the syllabus of instruction and of the inspection of schools ; while the provision of sites, buildings, and equipment, and the general administration, including the appointment and dismissal of teachers, was to be left to the local authorities. Since the fundamental principle of the Bill, as stated by Bowen, was that " a due control should be held by the power which gives the money —in fact, by this House," the provision of a national inspectorate was a vital feature of the scheme. Provincial representation in the House, however, was too strong for the author of the Bill. Consequently the Act, as passed, set up a one-sided system under which the whole of the cost was thrown upon the Colonial Government, while almost the whole of the control, including the control of the inspectorate, was entrusted to the local educational authorities. Sir George Grey, upon whose Government devolved the responsibility of inaugurating the system, immediately, by Orders in Council, handed over to the Education Boards a further portion of the powers still left by the statute with the central Department, and to the School Committees a capitation which has never since been equalled. This, with the power of electing the members of the Boards, gave the School Committees in some respects a dominating position in the system, while the central Department was reduced to a condition of almost complete impotence. Notwithstanding the eloquent protests of the [Right Hon. Sir] Robert Stout, who is the only surviving member of the Parliament that passed the famous Act, and others, the field of post-primary education was omitted from the scope of the Act except in so far as provision was made for the continuance of the district high schools, which had been so conspicuous a feature of the Otago provincial system. During the first twenty years of the national system, however, scarcely more than a dozen schools of this type were in operation throughout the colony. The provincial education reserves were by a separate Act placed under the control of special local bodies, known as the School Commissioners, with instruction that one-fourth of the revenues should be devoted to secondary and three-fourths to primary education. The primary revenues were at once in effect nationalized by being deducted from the sums due to the local Boards under the Education Act.
Nelson Education Act, 1857.
Education Act, 1877,
Administration entrusted to local Boards.
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It should, perhaps, be mentioned, in passing, that the strictly secular character of the system, for which [Sir] Robert Stout was also largely responsible, was to some extent modified in 1897, when the Nelson City Schools Committee, under the leadership of the Rev. J. H. MacKenzie, a Presbyterian minister, introduced into the six schools under its jurisdiction the system of religious instruction since known and more widely adopted under the name of the " Nelson system." The organization of the secondary schools independently of the primary system, as described in the next paragraph, affords the historical explanation for the practice existing of the opening of these schools with daily religious exercises. Secondary education was provided for by the enactment during 1877-78, at [Sir] Robert Stout's instance —though, strangely enough, without the inclusion of the secular clause —of a series of Acts setting up a number of local High School Boards, to which was given independent control of their own land endowments. No effective provision was made for the inspection and examination of these schools, or for the control of the expenditure of the large revenues derived by them in due course from these public endowments. Thus the secondary-education system, if system it could be called, grew up entirely apart from and uncoordinated with the public elementary-school system. The New Zealand University system was the outcome of a deep-rooted provincial and denominational conflict between Canterbury and Otago, into the details of which it is unnecessary to enter here. As finally determined by the New Zealand University Act, 1874, the University was established as a non-teaching, examining body merely, while the teaching was entrusted to a number of affiliated provincial colleges—a system which was strongly deprecated both by the Royal Commission presided over by the [Hon. Sir] Maurice O'Rorke in 1879-80 and by the recent Reichel-Tate Commission in 1925. The subsequent changes resulting from the enactment of the New Zealand University Amendment Act, 1926, and the establishment of the Massey Agricultural College and the reorganization of the Canterbury Agricultural College, have to a considerable extent cleared the way for further advances in this important field. When, in 1885-87, Sir Robert Stout, who was then Premier and Minister of ; Education, sought to introduce manual and technical instruction into the education system, he found himself blocked, as far as the primary schools were concerned, by the limitations of the curriculum prescribed by the Education Act, which left no loophole for any such instruction other than drawing, upon which great stress was immediately laid. Sir Robert, therefore, appealed to the University colleges and the secondary schools to undertake the new work of technical instruction, but without avail. In 1895 the Manual and Technical Elementary Instruction Act was passed, by which the primary syllabus was enlarged and power given to the Department to organize this branch of education ; but the sum appropriated for the purpose, £2,000 per annum, was insufficient to permit of any material advance being made. It was not until 1900- 2 that two new Acts, framed upon more generous lines, paved the way for a more vigorous development of technical education in New Zealand. The Act of 1895, however, was important in that it opened up a new sphere of i activity for the central Department, by which ultimately its direct operations came ] to extend throughout the length and breadth of the Boards' districts. This laid the foundation for the duplication of administration which later, under the stimulus given to technical and secondary education by the free-place system inaugurated during the Seddon-Hogben regime, gave rise to the multiplicity of overlapping educational authorities which exist to-day. Other factors which contributed to the expansion and gathering self-confidence of the central Department during the first twenty years of its existence were its successful direct administration of the Native schools and the industrial and special schools, which had been handed over to its control in 1880, and its increasingly effective use of the power of making regulations with the object of controlling in some measure the administrative and building expenditure of the Boards. During these twenty years, under the superintendence of Dr. Hislop and the Rev. W. J. Habens, 8.A., the average annual cost of the central Department did not exceed £2,500, and the combined cost of departmental and Board administration at the end of that period constituted a comparatively small percentage of the total sum expended for the year.
Nelson system of religious instruction.
High School Boards set up.
New Zealand University established.
Manual and technical instruction introduced.
Expansion of Education Department.
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From the professional point of view it may be said that throughout this period the syllabus of instruction was overloaded and rigid, while the system of inspection and external individual examination of the pupils in every subject in every standard proved a veritable scourge for teachers and pupils alike. Consequently the " percentage of passes " gained by the schools and teachers was regarded as the sole criterion of success and became the generally considered basis of the appointment and dismissal of teachers, and instruction was mistaken for education, words for ideas, and the symbols for the things symbolized. It was not until 1894 that the right to examine and promote pupils in Standards I and II was given to the teachers—a right subsequently extended by Mr. George Hogben, C.M.G., M.A., who succeeded Mr. Habens as Inspector-General, in 1899, to include Standards 111 to Vas well. The external inspectorial examination for the proficiency certificate in Standard VI then became in its turn the public criterion of the teachers' success or failure, and so came to dominate the elementary-school system in exactly the same way as the Matriculation Examination of the New Zealand University dominated the secondary schools. Meanwhile the independence of the local educational authorities was beginning to be seriously undermined. In 1895 the right of appeal against summary dismissal was given to the teachers, extended two years later to cases of ordinary dismissal upon notice, and, later still, to cases of compulsory transfer (1911), and reduction in salary (1914). By a succession of restrictive Orders in Council the original freedom of the Boards in connection with the expenditure of the building grants was also taken away, and the present system, requiring special departmental authorization for each new building, gradually established. In 1901 the Publicschool Teachers' Salaries Act established a colonial scale of staffing and salaries, and reorganized the financial arrangements by making provision for the direct payment to the Boards by the Department of the exact sum required for salarydistribution to the teachers, leaving a much-reduced capitation allowance available for expenditure at the independent discretion of the local authorities. The Education Act, 1914, completed the transformation by transferring the inspectorate to the control of the Department, as originally proposed by Bowen, and, when the consequent Dominion grading system became the compulsory basis of all ordinary appointments, in 1922, finally placed the central Department in a position of effective supremacy over both the Education Boards and the School Committees. It may be mentioned, perhaps, in passing, that the original method of election of School Committeemen by a system of cumulative voting was abolished in 1891, while the election of District Education Board members by the Committees voting as electoral units was altered in 1905 to one by which every School Committeeman votes independently. Various recommendations made from time to time (as, for instance, by the Commission presided over by the Hon. Mark Cohen in 1912) -for the election of the Boards upon a more popular basis — such, for example, as the municipal or electoral rolls — have hitherto failed to secure adoption. The constitution of the post-primary Boards has varied at different periods and in different localities, but since 1914 there has been an increasing provision for the representation of new interests — parents, municipal bodies, and employers' and employees' associations —thereon. No sketch of the history of education in New Zealand would be complete which did not refer to the remarkable contributions made by the Right Hon. Richard John Seddon, whose deep interest in education culminated in his combining the portfolio of Education with the Premiership from 1903 to his death. It was to him, for example, that the teachers owed the Public-school Teachers' Salaries Acts, 1901 and 1905, and the Teachers Superannuation Act, 1905 —measures which have contributed so much to the contentment and loyal service of the teaching body. But his greatest gift to the New Zealand education system was undoubtedly the institution of free secondary and technical education —a far-sighted and statesmanlike advance which challenged the attention and admiration of the civilized world. Indeed, from many points of view, no period in the history of the system is more important than that of Mr. Seddon's occupancy of the Ministerial office. In all these developments, moreover, he had an able and enthusiastic lieutenant and organizer in the person of the new Inspector-General, Mr. Hogben.
Rigidity of examination system,
Transference of power from Boards to Department.
Mode of election of Boards and Committees.
Ministry of Right Hon. R. J. Seddon.
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The consequent vigorous expansion of free secondary and technical education resulted in the establishment of a large number of new local Boards respectively controlling the secondary and the technical schools. It had been Mr. Hogben's intention and hope that under the Manual and Technical Instruction Acts of 1900 and 1902 the way would be opened for the University colleges and secondary schools to undertake technical work upon the lines formerly suggested by Sir Eobert Stout. When they did not do so to any appreciable extent, the technical day schools sprang, one after another, into being in the principal centres. Thus was laid the foundation of the full-time modern technical high schools, which constitute one of the most satisfactory features of the New Zealand education system to-day. To the same cause, however, must be ascribed the presence of a considerable number of pairs of rival post-primary Boards in the same cities and towns, both engaged in providing to a large extent overlapping services, and not infrequently in more or less keen competition with one another. But the same forces which operated to transfer the power from the primary local education authorities to the central Department were at work also in the post-primary field. Under the Education Amendment Act, 1920, this movement received a notable impetus. Under this Act Dominion scales of staffing and salaries were established for the post-primary schools. As earlier in the case of the elementary schools, a system was instituted providing for the payment to the Boards by the Department of the actual sums required for the teachers' salaries, plus a capitation grant for incidental expenses, from the gross total of which was deducted as a contra the value of the revenues obtained from the local secondary endowments. At the same time a more thorough system of departmental inspection, though still by no means comparable to that of the primary-school system, was instituted. The net result of these changes was the virtual nationalization of the secondary as well as the elementary education reserves, and the establishment of the central Department as the final controlling factor in post-primary as well as primary education. It must be observed, however, that along with this evolutionary expansion of the central Department there was no corresponding diminution of the administrative staffs and expenditure of the local bodies. On the contrary, although these were being steadily denuded of their real powers by the processes above described, organically they were increasing in number, in complexity, and in administrative cost. Thus at the end of the period of Mr. Hogben's control of the system (1899-1915) the total cost of educational administration per head of population in New Zealand had increased enormously in comparison with that of the final year of Mr. Habens's regime. At the present time it is nearly five times what it was thirty years ago, before the above-mentioned expansion of the Department and rapid increase in the number of local Boards began. No better example can be quoted of this complexity of administration and control than the rapid development since the free-place system was instituted in 1902, of three separately organized, administered, and inspected systems of secondary education in the district high schools, secondary schools, and technical high schools respectively. To return to the professional side : The advent of Mr. Hogben to the InspectorGeneralship and the institution of free post-primary education marked the general introduction of a new spirit into the whole education system. The primary syllabus underwent in 1904 a fundamental change. In place of the formality and rigidity of the old system, its basis became one of freedom and adaptability to the realities of life ; and this characteristic, which it has since retained, is even more emphasized in the new syllabus of 1928. The cramping effect, however, of the still rigidly conducted Proficiency Examination, which, as already stated, dominated the whole elementary-school course, rendered the advance made in 1904 somewhat illusory—a result which is being avoided to-day by the gradual adoption of the accrediting and age-promotion systems in the award of free places in the postprimary schools. In recent years, also, the new spirit, operating through the technical-high-school movement, has at last so permeated the post-primary sphere that even the traditional secondary schools can no longer withstand its vitalizing force. The Native-school system, too, has been sensitive to the same movement, and its syllabus of instruction has, on the whole, kept pace with the reforms instituted from time to time in the European schools.
Establishment oi schools** 1 hlgh Secondary education contfoUf"' 161 ' Department, increasing cost of e< "'""'"" sybe " ! " New primary instruction,
Secondary education brought under control of Department.
Increasing cost of education system.
New primary syllabus of instruction.
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Not the least notable of the advances consequent upon this revitalization of education in New Zealand by Mr. Hogben was that which led to a vigorous development of teacher-training. When the national education system was instituted in 1877 there were in existence only two training colleges, or normal schools, those of Otago and Canterbury, and in the first year of the system the Government recognized the extreme importance of this work by making a special grant of £7,000 per annum to the Education Boards for its development. As a result normal schools were established in Wellington (1880) and Auckland (1881). Owing, however, to the severe financial depression which overtook the colony in the " eighties," the Hall Government felt itself compelled to pursue a policy of drastic retrenchment, and this grant was withdrawn. The Wellington and Auckland Colleges were closed altogether, that at Christchurch was reduced to a mere shadow of its foimer self, and for many years the Otago Normal School was the only effective training college in operation in the colony. The revival dates from 1905, when the present system of bursaries for teacher students was instituted, and steps were taken to reorganize the Otago and Canterbury Colleges and to reopen those at Wellington and Auckland, which was done in 1906. From that time onward an exceedingly vigorous teacher-training policy has been pursued, with the result that to-day it can be said of the elementary service that almost the entire body of the teachers is certificated and that the great majority have received professional teaining. The independent organization of the post-primary schools is further emphasized by the fact that until quite recently no steps were taken to provide a similar trained teaching service for those branches. Amongst other recent historical developments of the system the following are perhaps the most notable : The rapid extension of free University education and State responsibility for the provision of University finance has set in operation in this field the same evolutionary development of the controlling authority of the central Department as in those of the primary and post-primary grades. The leavening influence of the new conception of the aims of education is evidenced by the movement towards freeing the secondary schools, and the University students also, from the unfortunate dominance of the external-examination system so emphatically condemned by the Reichel-Tate Commission and the Tate report in 1925. The world-wide reconsideration of the point of articulation between elementary and post-elementary education was emphasized by the establishment of a number of experimental junior high schools of varying types during the Hon. Sir James Parr's occupancy of the Ministerial office, and later by the introduction into Standards V and VI, under the elementary-school syllabus of 1928, of certain subjects which had always been regarded as belonging peculiarly to the secondary grade —notably foreign languages and mathematics. In this connection, however, it is a historical fact that the sixty to eighty district high schools which developed with such rapidity as part of the free-place system organized by Mr. Hogben were in principle, and to a considerable extent in practice, a great body of rural junior high schools, in which science, manual and domestic training, and agriculture, were taught from Standard V upwards. Historically these schools paved the way for the present movement to determine an earlier age of transition from purely elementary to pre-vocational work, just as the technical high schools, rather than the eight recent experimental junior high schools, constitute the real historical foundation for the movement towards bringing these pre-vocational courses into closer harmony with the realities of modern life.
Four trainingcolleges established,
Recent developments,
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SECTION I.—THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. CHAPTER III.—TERMINATION OF PRIMARY EDUCATION AT 11 PLUS YEARS OF AGE. From 1878 to the end of the nineteenth century the New Zealand system of public education was frankly organized as a system of elementary instruction only. The time, however, was approaching when something more would be required to satisfy the aspirations and meet the needs of the children of the nation in the new and wonderful era then dawning upon mankind, and when in the early years of the twentieth century the Education Department embarked upon a policy of establishing district high schools and manual and domestic training centres at suitable places throughout the Dominion it instituted a new phase of educational progress, out of which the present demand for definitely exploratory courses commencing at the age of 11 plus has grown; for in all the schools organized in accordance with the above policy manual training (woodwork and, in some few cases, metalwork also), domestic arts (cookery, needlework, &c.), experimental science, and agriculture were commenced after passing Standard IV by all pupils—-the girls or boys, as the case might be, taking appropriate subjects. Except, therefore, as regards the introduction of such subjects as Latin, French, mathematics, &c., the principles upon which the present world-wide movement to make the age 11 plus the definite point of termination of elementary education, as such, may be said to have been laid down in New Zealand nearly thirty years ago. But, while this is true, it would be quite erroneous to convey the impression that the primary schools were in their general practice conducted upon this basis. Indeed, quite the reverse was the case, for two reasons. The first was that the system was established upon the then wellnigh universal belief that a reasonable grounding in reading, writing, and arithmetic was a sufficient educational equipment for life for the great majority of the population. Secondary education was regarded as the privilege not of the social elite only —the free-place system put an end to that —but of the intellectual elite as well, for the modern conception of free secondary education for all children, irrespective of their " intelligence quotient " not less than of the social status of their parents, now ascendant in the thoughts of all, was then just dawning upon the minds of our educational leaders. The primary-education system, therefore, terminating on the average at about 14 years of age, opened for the mass of the pupils directly upon the vicissitudes and responsibilities of the great world outside its doors, into which it poured its product thus scantily prepared to fight for themselves the battle of life. The best equipment it could give them was the certificate of proficiency. But the fact that the Proficiency Examination prescriptions in effect wholly ignored the manual, domestic, scientific, and agricultural subjects diverted the attention and energy of the pupils into the narrow but intensive study of formal arithmetic and grammar. Thus the cold grip of the external examination for this certificate fastened itself upon the system, with fatal effect. Under the spur of economic necessity, teachers and taught bent their united energies towards this objective as the supreme measureable and marketable criterion of the value of the recognized eight years' school course. For the former promotion, for the latter employment, depended almost entirely upon the success of their efforts. In the secondary schools, to which the free-place system gave increasing access to holders of this certificate, the splendour of the national endeavour to give the benefits of free post-primary education to all children desirous and capable of proceeding thereto so dazzled the vision of the public that it prevented them from realizing the barrenness of the soil in which they had thus planted the tree of higher knowledge; for the rigidity and narrowness of the " proficiency "-ridden primary system were repeated in the secondary schools in a form, if possible, even more Procrustean by reason of their no less complete subordination to the purely academic prescriptions of the external Matriculation Examination. This state of
Establishment of district high schools and manual-training centres.
Effeet of Proficiency Examination in primary sehoois.
Effect ol Matriculation Examination in secondary schools.
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affairs the separate organization of the two stages under totally independent and differently constituted local Boards served but to confirm. Thus even the rapid development of free secondary education was largely stultified in its effect ; nor was any opening left by which an amelioration of the conditions or a readjustment of the point of articulation between the two stages might have been arranged. This was the second reason for the unfortunate arrest of the promising earlier movement for the development of prevocational courses in the primary and district high schools after Standard IV. As a protest against this condition of affairs the technical-instruction movement began to be developed, again to a large extent in independence of the earlier organizations. Here the ideals of a living education found fertile soil, out of which the most valuable element in our education system to-day has grown to fruitage of full and unmistakeable value to the nation. Consequently a stage has now been reached in the educational development of the Dominion at which the leaven of these two movements —the manual-training centres and district high schools in the primary, and the technical high schools in the post-primary systems —has rendered the fundamental reorganization of our education system not only possible, but inevitable. This stage is represented in concrete form by the eight experimental junior high schools established during the Hon. Sir James Parr's term of office as Minister of Education. To these fuller reference will be made in a later chapter of this report. What the Committee desires to stress here is that in these schools the psychological basis for the earlier introduction of subjects and courses of instruction closely related to life's realities is frankly realized, with the result that a deliberately increased emphasis is placed upon exploratory manual, domestic, and agricultural courses as the means of revealing special aptitudes to which purely literary studies formerly denied an outlet; also that the age at which these studies were originally introduced into the primary-school system, approximately 11 plus, is definitely accepted as the proper stage in the pupils' development at which these and other new and self-revealing interests and studies should, be commenced. It cannot be denied that New Zealand has lagged behind in the general application of this principle to the whole education system. This may be ascribed, without fear of contradiction, to the peculiar organization of that system under so many different controlling authorities, which have hitherto not been able to agree upon any practicable method of giving effect to the desired reform throughout the Dominion. In Victoria, where the education system is completely centralized, the change was introduced in 1916. In England, where again there is divided control, it is only now being put into general effect. In the United States of America, where the diversity of conditions lends itself to early experimentation with new ideas, the " junior high-school movement," as it is called there, has for a number of years been an accepted feature of State and county educational organization. In dealing with this important matter the Committee gave earnest consideration to a number of authoritative and expert reports relating thereto, including, with respect to the English practice, the report of the Consultative Committee of the Board of Education on " The Education of the Adolescent " (commonly known as the Hadow Report, 1926) ; the report of the Committee presided over by the Right Hon. Viscount Haldane, entitled " The Next Step in National Education " (commonly known as the Haldane Report, 1927) ; and the Board of Education Pamphlet, No. 60, 1928, entitled " The New Prospect in Education " ; and, with respect to the position in New Zealand, the report prepared in 1925 at the instance of Sir James Parr by Mr. Frank Tate, C.M.G., M.A., then Director of Education of Victoria, upon " Post-primary Education in New Zealand " ; and the report of the Syllabus Revision Committee set up by the Hon. R. A. Wright, Minister of Education., 1926-28. In addition, it had before it a brief special report prepared by Sir James Parr, as High Commissioner, upon an investigation made by him into the working of the change-over to the new system at Brighton, England, where the school population, 15,000, is approximately the same as that of Auckland. The Committee found all these authorities, without exception, to be in agreement upon this matter —namely, that the primary-school course, as such, should terminate at the age of 11 plus, and that post-primary education should then be begun.
Technical-education movement.
New developments overseas.
Authorities quoted,
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A very considerable body of evidence was also taken by the Committee upon this subject, and visits of inspection were made to districts and schools where the new system has been in operation for a number of years. Of the eight schools providing education of this type in New Zealand, the Committee visited seven, including the Kowhai Junior High School, established in October, 1922, and the result of its personal inspection and investigation goes strongly to confirm the opinions expressed in the above-mentioned reports. Finally, with regard to the evidence submitted, of twenty-seven witnesses examined, two only, both of them representatives of the Primary School Committees' Associations, expressed themselves as definitely opposed to the proposed reform, while two others gave it qualified approval. The remainder were unanimous in supporting the change, although not unanimous as to which of the several methods now being tried out in New Zealand was best for general adoption. An important consideration was the fact that the proposed reform has the unanimous support of all the representative teachers' organizations in New Zealand —viz.. the New Zealand Educational Institute, the Secondary Schools' Association, the Technical School Teachers' Association, and the Registered (non-State) Secondary Schools' Association. In view of the admittedly successful adoption of this principle of educational reorganization in England, America, and Australia, as well as of the no less successful experimental schools of this type already conducted in New Zealand, and of the consistent unanimity of expert opinion both in New Zealand and overseas, the Committee had no difficulty in coming to a conclusion upon this important subject; and therefore recommends — (1) That the termination of the primary-school course be at 11 plus or after passing Standard IV. CHAPTER IV.—COMPULSORY POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION TO FIFTEEN YEARS. Statutory authority for the institution of this reform has existed in New Zealand for the past ten years. Section 59 (1) of the Education Act, 1914, as amended by section 10 of the Education Amendment Act, 1920, provides that every child between the ages of 7 and 15 years shall have his name on the roll of some public school, secondary school, technical school, or other registered school, and shall attend school whenever it is open. Under clause 60, as amended by the same section of the Education Amendment Act, 1920, the conditions of exemption remain as before, except that a child over 13 years of age holding a certificate of proficiency is only exempted if he would be required to walk more than three miles from his place of residence (not including distance travelled by train or other public conveyance) in order to attend a school providing instruction in advance of the work of Standard VI. The date of coming into force of the amendment was to be fixed by Order in Council, being not earlier than the Ist January, 1922. Owing, however, to the incidence of a period of severe financial depression from 1921 onwards, the G-overnment decided that it was not possible to give effect to the proposed reform, which at that time would have entailed a considerable increase in the Education vote. On account of the very much larger proportion of the children between 14 and 15 years of age now in attendance at primary or secondary or technical schools, the position at the present time is quite different, and in most centres the cost of reorganization would probably be little affected by raising the compulsory school age. This reform is also supported by the unanimous weight of the evidence taken. The Committee is, moreover, strongly impressed by the fact that in England, where a not-altogether-dissimilar delay has occurred, steps are now being taken to enforce school attendance up to 15 years as part of the general reorganization scheme now being worked out. There the Education Act of 1918 abolished all existing forms of exemption from school attendance below the age of 14, including half-time, and made it obligatory on a child attending a public elementary school who attained
Opinions oS New Zealand educationists.
Recommendation.
> 7 Statutory authority , for raising school 3 age in New Zealand. T
Provisions of English Education Act, 1918.
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the age of 14 years during a school term to remain at school until the end of that term. The Act empowered local education authorities to make by-laws requiring the attendance at school between the ages of 14 and 15 either of all children or of children other than those employed in certain specified industries. It also enabled authorities to grant individual exemptions to children between the ages of 14 and 15. Since, therefore, the Ist July, 1922, which was the appointed day fixed by the Board of Education for section 8 (1) of the Education Act of 1918 to come into operation, all exemptions from school attendance up to the age of 14 have ceased, and all children whose fourteenth birthday falls within a school term must remain at school until the end of that term. In areas where a by-law requiring children to attend school up to the age of 15 has been made under section 46 (2) of the Education Act, 1921, a child in attendance at a public elementary school who attains that age in the course of a term is under an obligation to remain at school until the end of the term. —Hadow Report, pp. 141-142. In December, 1929, an Education (School Attendance) Bill was introduced into the House of Commons by Sir Charles Trevelyan, President of the Board of Education, with the object of raising the compulsory school age to 15 years. This Bill passed the second reading on the 29th May, 1930. The following extract from the explanatory memorandum issued with the Bill explains its principal provisions : — 1. The object of the Bill is to raise from 14 to 15 the age up to which the education of a child is required by law. The existing duty of parents under the Education Act, 1921, is twofold : viz., (1) under section 42 to cause their children to receive efficient elementary instruction, and (2) under by-laws made under section 46 to cause their children to attend school, unless there is some reasonable excuse —e.g., that the child is receiving efficient instruction in some other manner. Subsection (1) of clause 1 of the Bill has accordingly been so drafted as to deal with both points, and details of the consequential amendments of the Act of 1921 are set out in the Schedule to the Bill. 2. In areas where the age has already been raised to 15 by by-law, subsection (3) of section 46 of the Education Act, 1921, gives power to the local education authority to grant exemption to individual cases. This subsection is to be repealed, and the special power to grant exemptions between the ages of 14 and 15 will cease. 3. Under section 20 of the Education Act, 1921, local education authorities already have a duty to secure the provision of practical and advanced instruction in public elementary schools. This provision will apply under the Bill to children up to the age of 15, and the Schedule makes a consequential amendment in section 20. Prom the educational point of view the question of raising the age-limit of compulsory attendance at school is closely bound up with that of the reorganization of primary and post-primary education. It is indeed clear that if this limit be raised to 15 it will be necessary to rearrange the curricula of the schools so as to provide suitable training for all children on the basis of attendance up to the age of 15. If the proposals for the reorganization of the education system which are put forward in this report are carried into effect, there will thus be created a definite period of at least three years' compulsory post-primary education —viz., from 11 plus to 15 years. All the witnesses examined by your Committee on this question agreed as to the desirability, from the educational point of view, of raising the compulsory school age to 15. The New Zealand Educational Institute urges " that attendance be compulsory on all pupils, irrespective of attainments, up to the age of 15." Mr. McGregor Wright, Chairman of the Christchurch Technical School Board, supports the same view, and also expresses the opinion that the possession of a proficiency certificate should not entitle a boy or girl to drop all school-work as young as some are doing at the present time. Mr. T. Scott, Chairman of the Dunedin Technical School Board, speaking also as a master builder of long experience, expresses the opinion that the interests of trade apprentices would be promoted by the raising of the school age to 15 years. The Rev. H. K. Archdall, headmaster of King's College (Church of England), Auckland, and Chairman of the Auckland Branch of the Registered (non-State) Secondary Schools Association, states that his association suggests that it is time this community followed the example of England and raised the compulsory school age to not less than 15 years. The association regarded any such extension of educational facilities as most beneficial to the community, and the best possible investment of public money. "To close the
New English Education Bill.
Compulsory postprimary education to 15 years.
A striking democratic measure.
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primary course at 11 plus," stated Dr. J. W. Mcllraith, M.A., Litt.D., Senior Inspector of Schools of tlie Wellington Education District, " and thereafter to admit all of that age, would be a striking democratic measure, one of those epochal events comparable with the great Act of 1877 and the free-place amendment thereof in 1904." The weight of evidence is, therefore, wholly in favour of the amended sections of the Education Act being brought into immediate operation. The Committee, however, realizes that private, social, and economic factors enter into the question, and that there may be some cases of hardship ; but these will be met as they are being met under present conditions. It therefore recommends — (2) That the age to which the education of a child is required by law be raised from 14 to 15 years, with provision for exemption in cases of hardship. CHAPTER V.—EXPLORATORY COURSES (11 PLUS TO 15 YEARS) TO DETERMINE APTITUDES FOR FURTHER FULL-TIME EDUCATION (FOR CONTINUERS), OR FOR EMPLOYMENT (FOR LEAVERS), ACCOMPANIED, WHEREVER POSSIBLE, BY CONTINUED EVENING EDUCATION. The proposed period of compulsory post-primary education covers those stages hitherto comprised by Standards V and VI in the primary and Form 111 in the post-primary schools. Approximately only half the output of the primary schools in 1928 entered the post-primary schools ; while of those who left the latter approximately a quarter left before the end of the first year of the course. The reason for this is not far to seek. It is to be found in the great chasm hitherto existing between the two types of schools. In Standards V and VI the pupils are in every school taught by the best and most experienced teachers on the staff, all specially trained for their work. For the most part a pupil is under the charge of the same teacher for all his subjects, and works in one room. This room becomes a " home room" to him and the teacher stands genuinely in loco parentis. Apart from the daily spelling list, home-work is supposed to be confined chiefly to projects and home reading of intrinsic interest. On the other side of the chasm the 50 per cent, who venture across the free-place bridge not infrequently find themselves hurried all day from room to room, and from teacher to teacher ; or, if left in one room, taught by a succession of peripatetic teachers, each coming and going, but no one remaining long enough to establish that degree of personal intimacy which is attainable under the primary-school system. Moreover, a plethora of strange subjects and new tasks suddenly and synchronously confronts the pupil- -new languages, new symbols, and new technical terms in bewildering profusion. New text-books chosen with a single eye to the Matriculation Examination fill his bag. Set tasks from these night after night engage his attention, tasks in which generally he can get no help from his parents. In the school the best and most experienced teachers are engaged with the University Entrance Scholarship and Matriculation forms. To them he will come in time if he survives the ordeal of the first two years. Meanwhile for the most part he is given over to the charge of the junior members of the staff, with the result that in actual practice it is found that less than 40 per cent, of the pupils remain long enough to enter upon a third year in these schools. The Committee recognizes that the technical high schools have done much to mitigate the rigors of the system above briefly described. But the leakage there, too, in the first two years, is not less serious. Indeed, it greatly exceeds that of the traditional secondary schools, although it is clear that much of it is due to economic causes rather than to those set out above. Moreover, it is in part more apparent than real, in so far as many pupils who leave the technical day schools enrol themselves at evening continuation or technical classes. In these circumstances the Committee is not surprised that our elaborate system of post-primary schools, the cost of which necessarily falls upon the whole of the taxpaying public, thus fails to confer any corresponding benefit upon the children of one-half of their number. The proposals recommended in this report will, in the opinion of the Committee, entirely revolutionize this state of affairs,
Recommendation.
Present break betweem primary and secondary education.
The new idea]
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and will ensure for all the taxpayers' children a post-primary education in which the transition from one stage to another will be both natural and easy. It is further of opinion that by the adoption of the scheme proposed there will be made to disappear the last vestige of the objectionable social distinctions which have hitherto tended to divide those who have received a secondary education from those who have not, as well as those who have received an academic education from those taught in the technical schools ; for these two types will be brought under a single controlling authority, and in many cases actually amalgamated, as at New Plymouth, into a single modern composite school. As regards the period of compulsory post-primary education, 12-15 years, all the schools established will not only be of this type, but will be organized on a coeducational basis as well, so that the normal and healthy interassociation of young people of both sexes which is characteristic of all our primary and technical schools, and University and teachers' training colleges, will not be interrupted during that period of their lives when, in the opinion of the Committee, its mutually beneficial influence is most needed. This new prospect in education is best presented for the consideration of Parliament and the public by the actual description of the experimental schools of the new type already in operation in the Dominion. At this stage the Committee feels it necessary to point out that the evidence submitted showed a striking amount of misconception as to the true nature and working of these schools on the part of a number of witnesses, who more or less emphatically questioned their success and applicability to the needs of the Dominion as a whole, but who, upon examination, proved to have little, if any, personal knowledge of them. On the other hand, all those intimately associated with their working, whether as Inspectors, teachers, parents, or members or officers of local educational authorities, were both unanimous and enthusiastic in their endorsement of the new system. In such a conflict of opinion the Committee felt that it had no option but to accept the testimony of the latter groups rather than the former, especially in view of its complete confirmation both by the Committee's own observations and investigations, and by the report of Sir James Parr upon a similar personal investigation into the complete change-over to the new system at Brighton, England, an urban area with a school population, fifteen thousand, approximately equal to that of Auckland. This definite diversity of opinion, however, obtrudes itself, for the most part, in urban areas only. As regards rural districts the Committee found, on the contrary, a striking concurrence of testimony. It would appear, therefore, that if the experimental junior high school at Matamata is shown to be successful, the conversion of the whole district high-school system to the new organization would constitute a step not only easy of accomplishment, but one that would manifestly meet with well-nigh unanimous endorsement. Of the eight junior high schools established in the Dominion no fewer than five are in the Auckland Education District. These include, moreover, representative schools of all the four types being tried out. To the considered opinion, therefore, of the Senior Inspector of Schools of this district, the late Mr. C. W. Garrard, 8.A., based upon seven years' regular inspection not only of the junior high schools themselves but also of the contributory schools from which their pupils were drawn, the Committee felt that it could not attach too great weight. Mr. Garrard's statement to the Committee is consequently here reproduced in full. Statement in Evidence by Mr. C. W. Garrard, 8.A., Senior Inspector of Schools, Auckland. There are five junior high schools in the Auckland Education District. These are of four different types : — (1) Junior high school taking Standard V and Standard VI pupils from three large contributing schools, giving a i hree-years course. There is no primary department below Standard V and no secondary department above Form 111. Pupils after passing through Form 111 continue their education at secondary or technical school. (Such is the Kowhai Junior High School.) (2) Junior high school (up to Form III) with primary school attached. No secondary department above Form 111. (Such is Northcote Junior High School.) (3) Junior high school with secondary school attached. No primary department below Form I (Standard V). (Such are Whangarei and Rotorua High Schools.-) (4) Junior high school with primary school and secondary schools attached, all under on£ headmaster. (Such is Matamata District High School.)
Conflicting evidence.
Matamata type of school generally approved.
Evidence of Senior Inspector of Schools, Auckland District.
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Since the establishment of the first junior high school in Auckland I have inspected each year every one of the junior high schools, and have a good knowledge of their organization, their work, and their value as part of the system of education. lam definitely of opinion that for the larger cities junior high schools such as Kowhai best serve the educational needs of the community; for smaller towns the type of Rotorua and Whangarei is the most satisfactory, and for rural areas the Matamata type is the best. If the Kowhai type were established at Rotorua or Whangarei it would consist of such small numbers that they would not have the range of classes. For instance, Kowhai will have practically six grades of Standard VI or Form 11. In a smaller town there would probably be only two grades. A. The Kowhai Junior High School has been markedly successful from the outset. The features that call for special comment are — (1) The " uplift " of the non-academic pupil. Pupils of this type receive instruction suited to their natural capacity and ability and are happy in their work. They retain their self-respect—or, rather, they regain it, for many of them lose it in the primary schools, where they are often considered to be a drag on the class. (2) Provision is made for differentiated courses of instruction suited to the varying capacities and needs of the pupils. (3) Consultation with parents permits of the future careers of boys and girls being considered and educational provision being made therefor. (4) A large roll number allows for a division into classes of pupils of similar educational attainment. (5) Pupils progress at the speed at which they are individually capable. (6) A large staff allows for specialization of subjects. (7) Pupils at the end of their second year at Kowhai are much more advanced than those who are taught in primary schools for the corresponding two years. (8) The two " apparent " breaks in a child's education —(a) between the primary and Kowhai, and (6) between Kowhai and the secondary school—are much less noticeable than the one break between the primary and secondary. In other words, there is a greater break when a pupil passed from primary to secondary school direct than when he goes through the intermediate junior high school. B. Northcote, Whangarei, and Rotorua, established subsequent to Kowhai, have also been successful. In the last two named schools there is evident a much closer co-ordination between the work of Standards V and VI pupils and the senior secondary department than would have been the case had the Standard VI pupils proceeded direct from their own schools to the secondary school on a Standard VI certificate. C. Matamata School is a most important type because it is the one likely to be found to be suitable to rural areas. The school was started under somewhat disadvantageous conditions, for the following reasons : — (1) The pupils were drawn from six or seven schools, many of them small ones, and some only sole-charge. Educationally, therefore, many pupils were not well fitted to enter on a junior-high-school course. (2) The courses of work taken in the contributing schools in history, geography, science, &c., were of a varied character, so that there was initially a heterogeneous collection of pupils in so far as their knowledge of these subjects was concerned. (3) Arrangements had to be made for conveyance of pupils by buses from contributing schools. (4) Some pupils came by train, the railway time-table being not very suitable in some cases. Matamata has also been markedly successful (1) The pupils receive an infinitely better education than they would have received had they remained in the contributing schools. (2) There is not a parent in Matamata or its neighbourhood who would willingly revert to the old system and have his children taught in the contributing schools after they have passed Standard IV. (3) With a large number of pupils the spirit of work improves. A school tone, school esprit de corps, and school tradition are growing up in Matamata. (4) The removal of Standard V and Standard VI pupils from small schools to the central school at Matamata has been, from a social point of view, of incalculable benefit to these boys and girls. Association with large numbers of young people of their own age, participation in school sports, and the many other school activities, have had a marked influence on character-formation. (5) There has been no deterioration in the tone, discipline, and community spirit and efficiency in work in the decapitated schools. One would have expected that the removal of the top classes and the bigger boys and girls from a school would have resulted in deterioration, but Inspectors have found that the pupils of the highest class remaining in the contributing schools (Standard IV) have shown increased efficiency. Possibly the responsibility has improved them, or maybe the teacher has had more time to devote to them. The work of Standard IV pupils in decapitated schools has been of a higher standard since Standard V and Standard VI pupils were removed.
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Evidence of Chairman, Matamata School Committee.
As far as the Matamata type of school is concerned Mr. Garrard's evidence is corroborated by tha.t of Mr. E. C. Banks, Chairman of the Matamata Junior High School Committee, and member and formerly (1918-23) Chairman of the Auckland Education Board, who said:— All the district high schools should be turned into junior high schools and the Fifth and Sixth Standards closed in all schools within a radius of eight miles. Matamata in this respect has been a great success, and the greatest benefit has been to the one-teacher school. One or two children in the Fifth and Sixth Standards of the small school are more or less neglected in the school and cannot get team-work m the playground. When they come in to the large junior high school they are immediately examined and placed among forty other children of equal age and attainments, and get the competition in class and in the playground which is so necessary at that age. The teacher of the decapitated school, having to teach only up to Standard IV, does far better work and each year sends in a good Standard IV pupil to the junior high school. As to towns the size of Hamilton, there should be a junior high school the same as Te Kowhai. One of my reasons for this is that it tends to lengthen the school life one year. In Matamata before there was a junior high school about 60 per cent, of the children left school when they had passed Standard VI. Now that they attend the Junior High School they stay on longer, and nearly all of them put in the third year at the Junior High School. We now turn to the consideration of the Kowhai Junior High School, which was established in October, 1922, and has therefore been in operation for over seven years. It has, moreover, been under the charge of the same headmaster during the whole of that period —namely, Mr. R. E. Rudman, M.A., B.Sc. —whose teaching experience in New Zealand extends over forty years and includes service as a teacher in all three types of schools, primary, technical, and secondary, in addition to a term as headmaster of the Thames High School and a term as an Inspector of Secondary Schools. The Committee therefore felt that it should attach the greatest weight to the evidence tendered by Mr. Rudman with reference to the organization and operation of this school, the more so because it was confirmed by that of the late Mr. C. W. Garrard, 8.A., already quoted, Mr. D. W. Dunlop, Secretary and formerly Organizing Inspector of the Auckland Education Board, and Mr. A. G. McGregor, head teacher of the Mount Eden School, one of the three contributory schools from which the Kowhai pupils are drawn, as well as by the Committee's own personal observations and investigations at the school, and the testimony of Sir James Parr as to the change-over at Brighton referred to above. Extract from the Evidence op Mr. R. E. Rudman, M.A., B.Sc., late Headmaster, Kowhai Junior High School. Kowhai Junior High School. Organization. —On the Ist March, 1929, the roll was —Grade 111 158 ; Grade 11, 332 ; Grade I, 342 : total, 833. Pupils enter from three contributory schools—Mount Eden, Mount Albert, and Edendale —after passing Standard IV. If there is room, children residing in the district though not attending these three schools are admitted. They are classified by their headmasters into groups, eight of each, according to ability —" A," excellent; " H," poor to subnormal. These groups are checked by mental tests and ordinary tests, and are revised to a small degree up to May, after which practically no change is made. Syllabus for Standard V, or Grade I. —A, B, C, D, E grades, in addition to primary subjects, take French (direct), two lessons per week ; mathematics, two lessons ; science (practical in laboratory) ; and drawing with art mistress ; also technical work. A and B cover most of the requirements in English and arithmetic for Standard VI. E, F, and G grades have enough to do with their primary work, and do not attempt secondary. They take more drawing and handwork. All take singing, woodwork (boys), needlework and cookery (girls). Lowest grade (F) boys also take metalwork. Second year : Parents are circularized to get some idea of future requirement. Pupils having no intention of going to day school after the Kowhai course are classified as " moderns." Pupils going to grammar schools or academic courses of technical schools are classified as " generals." The following is a copy of the circular letter we send to parents :— Auckland Education Board, Auckland. Your son [daughter] is expected to attend this school for a year after passing the Sixth Standard. When the Junior High School coursc is completed the pupil may (a) Continue at a secondary school, (b) continue at a technical school, (c) leave school and take up employment. All pupils will study English subjects, arithmetic, drawing, singing, and science ; also woodwork, or cookery and needlework, but the other subjects depend on their future career. In (a) pupils should learn French, mathematics, Latin (optional); in (6), mathematics (boys only), book-keeping, special drawing, special handwork ; in (c), (1) Trade —special arithmetic, woodwork, and metalwork, mechanical and geometrical drawing, design, bookkeeping ; (2) office—special book-keeping and commercial work; (3) home or nursing (girls)—special cooking and needlework, special drawing and design, home science.
Evidence of Headmaster, Kowhai Junior High School.
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Parents are invited to confer with the Principal by appointment or otherwise as soon as possible, and to sign and return the enclosed paper to him, addressed Kowhai Junior High School, Kingsland. [enclosure.] Kowhai Junior High School. Name of child To guide the headmaster in determining the best course of work for your child, will you answer the following questions and return this paper at once :— (1) After leaving Kowhai, will your child enter a grammar school, technical school, or take up some employment ? (2) What is your intention as to his future career—trade (name it), farming, office-work, warehouse, shop, engineering, a profession, any other occupation ? (3) What does the boy or girl desire ? (4) What special subject is he not to study ? (5) What special subject would you like him to study ? (6) His general state of health ? (7) Any other remarks : [Parent's signature.] Teacher's Report. Grade : Ability : Diligence : Conduct: Other remarks : , Principal. Syllabus of Standard VI, or Grade 11: — 11, General: Three classes, A, B, and C. 11, A. General (all over 13) : These pupils, being far advanced in primary subjects and of high mental calibre, are worked as a high-scliool class. They have covered, in secondary work, French (about three-quarters of Longmans' French Coarse) ; geometry (Hall and Stevens, Book I) ; algebra to " factors " ; a full practical course of science. They can at the same time score a higher average in Standard VI subjects than any other second-grade class. As a result these children have reached in their Standard YI year as high a standard as any secondary school (Form III) except lIIa. 11, B, General (all under 13) ; 11, C, General: These classes take French, mathematics, science, technical work, in addition to primary subjects. The 11, B, children will mostly be successful when they enter secondary schools. The 11, C, Generals are mostly not of a. calibre to receive free academic education. Moderns : Five classes, A, B, C, D, E. As most of these children will go to occupations, day technical schools, or 111, Modern, of Kowhai, French is not studied. Girls do not take mathematics. Boys take metalwork and woodwork, mathematics (optional), drawing (mechanical and art), bookkeeping, and science, in addition to primary subjects. Girls take cookery and needlework, art drawing, book-keeping, and science, in addition to primary subjects. Special syllabuses are provided for I) boys, E girls, over-age retardate children. This is a feature of the junior-high-school grading. Third Year: — 111, General: Two classes. (Note. —At this stage, there being only one junior high school, children have the choice of remaining at Kowhai or attending one of the grammar schools. At Kowhai the child follows on from where he left off at Grade 11. If he goes to a grammar school he starts at the beginning again and marks time for some months. With a national system of junior high schools this trouble will be obviated, as the secondary schools will receive more pupils to enable full classes to be formed. The best promotes from this grade are at least half a year ahead of the ordinary secondary pupils of the same year, and they reach Form IV when they enter grammar school.) (Special Note. —Of 82 Kowhai children who have passed Matriculation to date from the grammar schools 54 actually passed through Form 111 of Kowhai and 28 through Form 111 of a grammar school. This proves the soundness of the secondary work of this grade.) Moderns (third year) : Two classes of boys and two of girls. Special courses, semi-vocational and occupational. A wide range of options, guided by the child's future career. Pupils are encouraged to take offers of employment at any time during the year, and employers send to us for boys and girls. Consequently, the roll number of this grade drops considerably during the year. Syllabus : Boys : All English subjects and arithmetic and science. Optional (up to seven hours for a subject) —woodwork, metalwork, machine drawing, book-keeping, shorthand, art, mathematics. Girls : All English subjects, arithmetic, and home science. Optional—Cookery, needlework, millinery, book-keeping, shorthand, art, household carpentry, household metalwork, first, aid and hygiene. In all grades a feature is made of singing, folk-dancing (girls), and physical drill. Staff: One principal, twenty class teachers, separate instructors in science, art, cookery, needlework, metalwork, and woodwork. Examination results : As showing that the introduction of secondary subjects does not affect primary results, I quote the result of six years : Junior National Scholarships, 44 ; Rawlings Scholarships, 3 ; proficiency on Junior National Scholarship papers, 160; proficiency, Inspectors', 1,800 (approximate). Secondary results : 53 Senior Free Places, 8 Public Service Entrance.
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Recommendations for Junior High Schools. (a) Junior high schools should be established in the four large towns, and gradually extended to towns of over six thousand population. (b) The separate type as at Kowhai is the most suitable and economical for the large centres, as by attaching the junior high school to either a secondary or a technical school the pupil's course is determined too early, and the exploratory function of the junior high school is not made full use of. (c) In the smaller centres the advantages of large numbers, to enable classification into several Sixth Standards and Fifth Standards, is lost, and a continuation of the present district high schools, with staffing to permit of at least two Sixth Standards and two Fifth Standards, also extended manual facilities, should meet the case. Where there is either a secondary or day technical school in the smaller centre a junior high school might be attached, but great care must be taken that the duller children are not started on secondary subjects while their knowledge of primary subjects is too poor, and when they have quite enough to do in learning these. ('d) Each junior high school with its contributing schools might form a group under one committee. The principal of the junior high school should be the convenor of meetings which would be held with the heads of the contributing schools for unification of methods, methods of promotion, and matters of detail affecting these schools in their relation to the junior high school. (e) All children after passing through the Fourth Standard would be enrolled in a junior high school. As at Kowhai, more than half would commence secondary subjects. At the end of the year, after consultation with parents, the pupils would be classified, as at Kowhai, broadly into secondary, technical, and occupational; the courses would still be flexible enough to allow the child to change his mind at the end of the Sixth Standard year. (Note : It would be quite possible, though perhaps not advisable, to select about 15 per cent, of the Standard V pupils at this stage and send them forward to a grammar school. The younger, under 12, should not be chosen.) (/) The main divisions in Sixth Standard would be (a) General, and (b) Modern. General: Those intending to continue with secondary education of academic type as at existing grammar schools. Extra subjects to include French, mathematics, science. At least one class in each large school could be worked as a first-year high-school class. Modern: Those intending to take a course at a technical school, or a third year semi-vocational course at a junior high school, and those intending to leave school for some occupation. Extra subjects —Boys : mathematics (optional), art and machine drawing, book-keeping, metal or woodwork, science. Girls : art and craft work, book-keeping, cookery and needlework, science. (g) Promotion by examination or otherwise of the best General pupils to the secondary school (at present they have the option of remaining at Kowhai). Their curriculum should be so arranged as to follow on from where the junior-high-school course ends. (h) The slower General pupils to remain for a third year at the junior high school, after which some would decide not to continue on the academic side (these " one-yearers " are costly under the present system), while the remainder would be better fitted to go to the secondary school. (i) Sixth Standard moderns wishing to take a technical course of two years or more would then proceed to technical school. All other pupils wishing to stay on would have the benefit of the good semi-vocational, occupational course which has proved so popular and beneficial at the Kowhai School. The weaknesses of the present education system which could be improved upon in the' large centres by junior high schools are : — (a) Large classes, of most uneven ability. The children of higher ability, and the quicker workers, are actually retarded to wait for medium children ; they unconsciously get a" go slow " habit. These can easily cover much more work. The very slow children, working in the same class with clever children, get a badly-developed " inferiority complex " ; they overstrain, they are the butt of the impatient teacher, and they are, to a certain extent, neglected. Moreover, in many schools they are kept back and never reach Sixth Standard ; they leave school immediately they are fourteen years of age. In the junior high school 350 children are graded into seven or eight classes, according to speed and ability. The fast children go ahead, take extra subjects, and should learn secondary work much earlier. The slow children are classed together with more handwork and literature, under special teachers, who develop in them a fine class spirit; they are promoted to Standard VI on the principle that it is an educational blunder to keep a child of that age two years in a standard. A large proportion qualify for proficiency, and return voluntarily for a third-year course of semi-vocational work. (b) Separation of technical centres from main school : Time is lost in travelling, interest waxes or wanes according to headmaster's attitude towards technical work. In the junior high school the technical staff, the technical buildings, form an essential part of the institution. There are enough children to keep the whole of the manual instructors busy for all the time ; also enough classes to permit of separate instructors for woodwork and metalwork ; separate instructors for cookery and needlework, and to enable a child who shows no aptitude or no interest for one branch of handwork to transfer to another branch. This exploratory benefit aids in vocational guidance. The manual instructors tell me that they cover more ground and do more satisfactory work than in the isolated manual-training centres. (c) Change of schools : An objection is raised that under the junior-high-school system a child has two breaks in his school life. The drawback is more imaginary than real. Under the present watertight system in big primary schools a child has a big break every time he moves forward from one standard to another, whereas with well co-ordinated courses between primary and junior high schools the transition should be smooth. At present the greatest break is when a child leaves the skilled primary teaching of the Sixth Standard and crosses to the new subjects of the secondary school, taught in many cases by comparatively inexperienced teachers. In the junior high school the introduction to secondary subjects is gradual, and the child passes from junior high school to grammar school feeling that he has some familiarity with the new subjects of the new school.
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General Notes. It has been proved at the Kowhai Junior High School— (a) That by careful classification the faster children can learn secondary work far earlier than at present, and can actually, without extra strain, reach intermediate standard one year earlier than at the present secondary schools. (b) That with 50 per cent, of the children the primary work is in no way impaired by the introduction of secondary subjects. This is proved by the very high percentage of Junior National Scholarships and proficiency passes on Junior National Scholarship papers gained at this school. (c) That the so-called retardate children, when classified together and given suitable subjects, are prepared to stay at school for a third year, instead of rushing away at the age of fourteen. Probably the junior high school does more good to this type of child than has been done or attempted by any other school in New Zealand. Consequently, practically all the children who stay for a third year in our modern classes go straight to employment, during or immediately at the end of their third year. (id) That a number of children, having tried a third year of secondary work at a junior high school, decide, and rightly so, not to continue at a grammar school. This saves the country a great deal of money, as at present a large number of children remain only one year or less at a grammar school. The trying-out of these doubtful pupils should be done at the junior high school, where the teaching is sympathetic and more efficient for slow children, and the cost per head very much less. The heads of these secondary schools do not want these one-year pupils. Some Obstacles or Difficulties. (a) A large body of primary teachers and their committees have consistently opposed junior high schools. One reason —headmasters quite naturally do not care to have their schools decapitated. Another reason—an indefinite feeling that salaries may be interfered with. So far, a few higher salaries have been added to junior-high-school scale, and the classes are smaller; both of these are what teachers have been claiming for years. Another reason—some teachers, skilled in primary subjects, feel that they may lose status because they cannot teach French or mathematics. With the present high standard of education demanded of training-college entrants there should always be sufficient teachers on a staff to take these extra, subjects efficiently. lam satisfied that any primary teacher with a good secondary education can teach the first two years at least of secondary work as efficiently as the majority of teachers in our secondary schools, and the acquisition of some of these district-high-school and junior-high-school teachers by our grammar schools would be advantageous. (b) There appears to be a good deal of opposition from the smaller secondary schools, possibly through fear of numbers being reduced. I have dealt with these points elsewhere. I consider it would be a great mistake to attach junior high schools to the lower end of large secondary schools, though possibly in small centres it would be more economical. lam sure with a good system of promotion of the better children fairly early to the existing grammar schools or technical schools in the large centres, with the retention of the slower and more doubtful children at the junior high school, any opposition on the part of the large secondary schools will be removed. (c) While Kowhai is still regarded as experimental, too few children have been promoted to secondary schools to enable these schools to form separate classes where advantage can be taken of the work already completed. With a number of junior high schools there will be plenty of children to form full classes at the secondary schools. (d) Some objections have been raised on account of lack of co-ordination between junior high schools and grammar schools in Auckland. When it is considered that Kowhai School pupils go to one of four grammar schools and a technical school; that in the four grammar schools at least three different Latin text-books are used in the first year ; in the five schools four different first-year science courses are followed ; they do not all use the same first-year French text-book ; and some of them take very little notice of the careful classification of the junior-high-school child, determined on a twoor three-years knowledge of the child —it must be conceded that the task of co-ordination is colossal. However, our children are now fitting in very well into most of the classes of the grammar school, and taking high places there ; but the co-ordination with the technical school is more difficult, as our thirdyear course is a final one-year course, with many options to suit the majority of our pupils. I recommend on another paper that Sixth Standard pupils desiring to take a technical-school day course of several years should go from our Sixth Standard to the secondary school. (e) There are in New Zealand several types of junior high school, ranging in age from four years to seven years. Although the Department of Education has not stinted us for equipment or staff, they have issued no regulations or syllabuses based on the experimental work done, which may lead to a unification of work and classification method throughout the Dominion junior high schools. This leaves a headmaster to a certain extent at a " dead end : " he continues to try new experiments without knowing whether they meet with the departmental approval or not; and he does not receive anv indication of methods successful at other junior high schools which might prove useful to his school. The departmental Inspectors of the district have from time to time given us high praise in all departments ; but they, of course, do not see other junior high schools at work, and cannot help us in the above direction. (/) Secondary School Inspectors : In seven years we have received one visit from Secondary Inspectors. It would help the work of our higher department to get more frequent visits from Inspectors who are in touch with the senior high schools. 2=l=
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Kowhai Junior High School: Expenses. Buildings : The two original brick buildings, of an expensive type, were built for primary-school purposes. A galvanized-iron portable building, of eight rooms, was added for technical purposes. A wooden building, six rooms, of cheap construction, and a one-room art-room in wood, were added for Junior High School. Staff : The original staff was highly paid in order to provide expert staffing for future junior high schools. The teaching staff is now reduced by the Department to absolute scale staffing practically on the plan below : — Kowhai has a district-high-school department of 200 pupils and a primary establishment of 600 pupils. The contributory schools lose three senior men and three ladies with special bonus. The present Kowhai staff is calculated on the same basis as the combined district high school and primary —no extra allowance being made to the primary teachers who have to teach secondary subjects. We have woodwork, metalwork, cookery, and needlework specialists fully employed, but these would be necessary —at the manual-training centres —in the ordinary primary-school staffing. We have also a science teacher and an art teacher, drawing between them about £600 a year, but if we were a primary school we should have probationary assistants and probationers, also drawing about £500 a year —so the one compensates the other. Thus the expense is very little greater than the ordinary primary school. Details of staff expenses : Men—First Assistant, Grade IV, same as Normal School of 500 pupils ; three Grade 111, two slightly below ; six Grade 11. Women —One special salary, £4-30 (higher than any grammar-school assistant —this is the only anomalous salary) ; one Grade 111 ; one grade II plus £30 ; six Grade II ; also five teachers on technical scale. (Note : The original scale had one man, £500 plus £40, and another £440 plus £40, but these have been replaced by Grade II men. The women's scale has not been reduced. At the same time, all the salaries, except the head lady's, are on the primary basis.) Secondary salaries : Our six teachers taking our secondary classes receive £2,050 annually. A senior high school of 200 pupils would have seven assistants, receiving £2,600, and a headmaster receiving £760. A district high school of 200 would have seven assistants, receiving £2,650, together with headmaster's allowance, £80 : total, £2,730. Allowing in junior high school, as in district high school, headmaster's allowance £80, the comparison for a secondary department of 200 would be— Senior high school, £3,360; district high school, £2,730; junior high school (for secondary department only), £2,130. I merely give these figures to show that the exaggerated idea that we are expensive is not borne out by facts. Senior and district high schools are doing work up to Matriculation. (Note. —The salary of the principal of the junior high school with a roll of 800 to 900, including secondary department 200, and an extensive technical department, is the same as the salary of the principal of a high school with a roll number of 160 secondary pupils.) The pros and cons of attaching junior high schools to grammar schools in the larger towns : — The junior high school includes — (1) Clever scholars whose circumstances permit them to attend grammar schools. These can attend grammar schools as early as possible with benefit. (2) Clever scholars who do not desire a grammar-school course. These remain at junior high school, where after exploration and experience they may change their minds or decide on the appropriate technical course. (3) Clever scholars whose circumstances demand their leaving school earlier. These children with an earlier introduction to secondary work in the junior high school, and with an extra year at secondary work will probably pursue higher education at the night school (technical or otherwise). (Note. —All the above pupils are well fitted to go to grammar schools, and we tell them so, but most of those in (2) and (3) will attend grammar school for the two compulsory years and then leave —after putting the State to a good deal of unnecessary expense.) (4) Slower workers who desire to attend a grammar school. Unless a tremendous change takes place in the traditional methods of grammar-school teaching it will be harmful to these slow children. They require the sympathetic and better-trained elementary teacher. At present these join the D's and E's and F's and become submerged. (5) Slower workers who do not desire grammar-school course. These require the technical bias of the junior high school. (6) Slower workers who will leave school as soon as they can. These also require the technical bias. These children should never be admitted to a secondary school free, with the idea of carrying on. (7) Dull children whose parents think they must go to a grammar school. These children should never receive free places to a grammar school. Endorsed competency to a technical school would suit them—or parents should pay for them at the grammar school. A course at a junior high school is more likely to show them the error of their judgment. Once these children enter a grammar school they will remain for years and do little good educationally. In addition to that, they remain until they are too old to become apprentices, and then they are at a loose end. (8) Dull children desiring to go to work. The intermediate course of the junior high school with good optional s is more suitable for these.
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Our experience at Kowhai shows that about four-sevenths of the pupils who pass Standard VI do not proceed either to grammar or technical day schools. We give a large percentage of this four-sevenths optional subjects which give them a trade or technical bias. The others —the threesevenths, and part of the four-sevenths —get a grammar-school bias by receiving an earlier start in French, mathematics, Latin, and science, in Standards V and VI. If the whole of these children enter a junior high school attached to a grammar school they will naturally receive the grammar-school bias at the age of 11 to 12 years, and then four-sevenths will leave the grammar school when the compulsory attendance age is reached— -these children have had an expensive and incomplete course — but the junior high school has already proved that it can give them a cheaper and fairly complete course. It will be easy with the jtresent classification at Kowhai to pick out, say, 25 per cent, or more, I should say, of the pupils at the end of Grade II (Standard VI), or even Grade I, and send them on to the grammar school, and thus the cream of the pupils will get an earlier start with specialists, but the essence of the junior-high-school system is its exploratory character, by which the pupil, while too young to elect his career, may get a more varied education to enable him to determine his type of higher education. Another vital point is the matter of co-education. It has been the practice in New Zealand, and the essence of the primary system, to co-educate Standard V and VI pupils. By attaching junior high schools to senior high schools this principle will be completely changed. (Note. —In the foregoing remarks I am speaking of the grammar schools purely from the teaching, learning, and choice of career point of view. I recognize the great value of the secondary school (especially the large secondary boarding-school) in character-building, citizenship, and sport, but there is no reason, as time goes on, why the tone of the more elementary schools should not be equally beneficial; and in any case the State asks for more results from its free places than training in citizenship —if the citizen remains comparatively ignorant.) The majority of the Principals of the city high and technical high schools were opposed to the establishment of separate schools of the Kowhai type, and recommended that junior departments should be attached to the existing high and technical high schools instead. Mr. W. A. Armour, M.A., M.Sc., headmaster of Wellington College, for example, urged in addition that the technical high schools, as such, should be abolished, and all secondary schools converted into schools of a composite and exploratory type. Extract from the Evidence of Mr. W. A. Armour, M.A., M.Sc., Headmaster of Wellington College. I am totally opposed to the separate junior-high-school system, which can produce no results which cannot be equally well or even better produced under a more continuous system. I believe that the term " technical high school" should be abolished from our system : it is a misnomer. According to local conditions, all technical high schools should (a) become secondary schools or (b) be amalgamated with existing secondary schools, or (c) be abolished altogether or become purely trade schools. On the other hand, the Department should take more active measures than it has hitherto taken to enable secondary schools to widen their courses of instruction and enrich their curriculum to suit the varying needs of pupils. If these changes were made, there would be absolutely no necessity for the erection of junior high schools, which would only cause two breaks, instead of one as at present, in the educational life of the child. Divide our secondary schools into intermediate and senior divisions, and all the trying-out and exploring of aptitudes can be done in the intermediate division, into which the child would be received at the age of about 11 plus. With transference to secondary schools at this age, it must, under any scheme, be necessary for additional schools to be built. Let these schools be secondary schools, provided with diversified courses, and not separate junior high schools. Mr. J. H. Howell, 8.A., B.Sc., Director of the Wellington Technical College, however, expressed himself as strongly opposed to composite schools of this nature, and advocated the retention of the present distinction between secondary and technical high schools. Any separate urban " central schools " established should be organized definitely with a view to their future expansion as full technical high schools, pending which development they should be conducted solely for pupils intending to leave school at 15 years of age. Mr. Howell stated : — Extracts from the Evidence of Mr. J. H. Howell, 8.A., B.Sc., Director of the Wellington Technical College. That there should be distinct types of post-primary schools : — (а) A long-course school for pupils who intend to remain until at least 16 years of age, and probably to 17 or 18 years. (б) A short-course school for pupils who intend to remain until at least 15 years and probably 16. (c) In the largest centres it may be desirable in the initial stages to establish a third type of school, of the same kind as the English central school; but such schools should be founded only where the number of pupils available in the district is insufficient to form a school of the (6) type. The central school is, of course, definitely only for pupils who intend to finish their school course at 15 years.
Evidence of Headmaster, Wellington College.
Evidence of Director, Wellington Technical College.
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In the large centres schools of the (a) and (b) type, and possibly of the (c) type, should be maintained, the two former being on the same lines as the ordinary high school and the technical high school respectively, but with junior departments containing pupils of 11 upwards. In the smaller centres it will be necessary to combine the (a) and (b) types in a composite school of the American kind, but, as soon as the population allows, differentiation should be made. In the smallest centres a modified " district high school " should be maintained. It has been argued that schools of the composite American type should be established everywhere in New Zealand. It will be unnecessary to point out that this type is contrary to British tradition, and there are not wanting many acute American critics who maintain that the all-embracing school is a low-type school, and does not permit that differentiation which is needed to meet the requirements of first-class intellects. Mr. G. J. Park, 8.C0m., Principal of the Seddon Memorial Technical College, Auckland, complained that the Kowhai Junior High School gave its pupils a distinct bias towards a grammar-school education and the professions, to the detriment of the technical high schools and non-professional vocations. He further maintained that the claim that the pupils' vocational aptitudes were revealed by schools of the Kowhai type was not justified. With reference to the first point, the Committee found, upon inquiry, that 312 children left the Kowhai Junior High School during 1928, and, of these, 174 went directly into employment, a number of whom, it was given to understand, attended evening technical classes; 32 entered the technical high school as day pupils ; and 106 proceeded to the grammar schools. From its own investigations and the evidence of Messrs. Garrard, Rudman, and McGregor it formed the opinion that the exploratory courses provided do effectively reveal the pupils' aptitudes for further education and for vocation, both to the pupils themselves and to their parents and teachers, and that their destination upon leaving the school followed mainly the aptitudes so discovered. The Committee gave earnest consideration to the foregoing and other opinions expressed in opposition to the Kowhai type of school by the Principals of the urban high and technical high schools, and also by the representatives of the School Committees' Association and other bodies; but in view of the fact already stated that in scarcely a single instance was the testimony so given based upon first-hand observation and investigation it was felt that in this matter it could do no other than pronounce judgment in accordance with the above testimony and its own personal conclusions. It therefore recommends the adoption of this type of school for all areas in which a sufficient number of 12- to 15-year-old pupils are available for the organization of an effective parallel-course intermediate school. This number the English Board of Education fixes at from 240 to 320 for a two-course, and from 320 to 400 for a three-course school. (See " The New Prospect in Education," pp. 24, 25.) In the opinion of the Committee the latter should be the minimum standard adopted for the establishment of separate intermediate schools in New Zealand. It finds itself in complete agreement with the English Board in stating that "it is impossible to exaggerate the significance of what we may call ' the course idea,' " being strongly convinced that without at least three available alternative courses much of the exploratory value of schools of this type would be lost. In towns too small to provide these numbers, where high or technical high schools are already in existence, there seems no other course open but to attach the intermediate school to such schools, as has been done at Oamaru, Blenheim, Rotorua, and Whangarei. The Committee did not visit the last-named centre, but in all the others it received convincing testimony as to the successful working of the new order of things. In particular it was impressed with the fact that in these towns, as well as at Auckland and Matamata, whereas there had been considerable local opposition at the time the innovation was introduced, there is now to be found instead substantially unanimous enthusiasm in support of the change-over thereby effected. In the few country centres not capable of being provided for by one of the three types discussed above, the Committee is prepared to see schools of the Northcote type organized ; but it is of opinion that such schools should definitely be the exception and not the rule. In still remoter areas recourse will need to be had to the correspondence school, and the Committee thinks that it may be found possible, as is done in New South Wales, to place the Form I, 11, and 111 pupils in such schools
Evidence of Principal, Auckland Technical College.
Kowhai type of school recommended for urban centres.
Rotorua type recommended for smaller country centres.
Northeote type recommended where others not practicable.
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upon the roll of the correspondence school. By this method the sole teachers would be able to devote more attention to the first four standards, and still find time to render occasional assistance to the senior pupils when in difficulty with their correspondence-school assignments. Apart from the larger question of effecting a reduction of the general administrative cost of the education system as a whole, which is dealt with in another part of this report, the Committee has carefully considered the matter of the cost of the proposed scheme of compulsory post-primary education. In so far as it will result in increasing the number of children in attendance at the public schools it will undoubtedly increase the annual expenditure upon education ; but this will arise from the extension of the school age from 14 to 15 years, and would Lave to be met whatever form of educational reorganization was adopted. In so far as the new system necessitates a general reduction in the size of classes, it will also contribute to what is already the declared policy of the Government. The same will apply in regard to the policy of consolidating schools and classes which the Committee recommends should be extended throughout the system. In so far as running-expenses are concerned, Mr. Rudman's evidence shows conclusively that the Kowhai Junior High School has been conducted for some time at a cost not exceeding that of the district high schools ; and while this will result in a slight increase as regards the transferred Fifth and Sixth Standards, that increase will be to a considerable degree balanced by a corresponding reduction with respect to the Third Form pupils withdrawn from the existing secondary school system. As to buildings, it is quite clear that, on the whole, there will be very little additional building required over and above what would be necessary to meet the normal expansion of the service and the special extension occasioned by the raising of the school age. Apart from these factors the change-over can be effected by a rearrangement of the existing accommodation. That this has actually been the experience in Brighton, England, is clearly stated by Sir James Parr, from whose report the following extracts are taken : — Extracts from the Report of Sir James Pare, High Commissioner for New Zealand, to the Right Hon. the Prime Minister, 4th November, 1929, relative to the Intermediate or Junior Secondary Schools in the Brighton Education District, England. I inquired especially whether new buildings had been found necessary to accommodate the new movement. The answer was that Brighton had utilized very largely the existing buildings. For instance, the intermediate school (hereafter referred to) was housed in the old boys' school which was vacated a few months ago when the new boys' school was erected. It accommodated 500 pupils. Again, a large primary school (hitherto carrying pupils up to M years of age) was used as a junior school (7 to 11) under the new system. One new school (a senior school) had been necessary. It was therefore clear that there had been no very large demand on the building fund to accommodate the new system. . . . I had the pleasure of watching closely the work of these various schools. I could not fail to be struck by the new interest that the children seemed to have in their work. There was an alertness, a desire " to get on with it," which was very lacking in the old system of six standards of primary education. One great advantage, particularly in the intermediate school, and to some extent in the senior school, lay in the fact that the teachers were, many of them, specialists in some subject or other. . . . Another feature that was strongly apparent was this—that in the senior schools particularly, provision was made for some degree of internal classification. The headmaster of one school assured me that he desired to have three parallel courses of instruction in the senior school, and he was aiming in that direction. This headmaster had got the right idea. He said, " I want to do the best I can for each boy. One boy will do well in one course and badly in another, whilst his brother will act quite vice versa". . . . May I venture an opinion ? The remarkable feature, I repeat, was that a complete change-over had been made. All the children and all the schools of the whole district had come under the scheme. If one were to institute a comparison, the population of the Brighton district is about that of the City of Auckland. Upon the whole, I ought perhaps to say that the Kowhai Junior High School in Auckland, if its term be extended to definite courses up to 15 years of age, and if it be not handicapped by too close an association with the grammar schools —if, in short, it has a life and object of its own — well, then I believe that the Auckland solution tried at Kowhai may really prove more efficient for our purposes than if we were to attempt to follow strictly the advice of the fiadow Report. With regard to the smaller New Zealand cities, the solution indicated at Mr. Milner's school in the South Island and in the consolidated central school of the Matamata type for the smaller districts will, I think, meet the needs of the new organization.
Cost of new system considered.
Report ol Sir James Parr on change-over at Brighton, England.
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Discovery and development of special aptitudes aimed at.
In concluding this portion of its report the Committee desires to make it perfectly clear that the whole purpose of the proposed period of compulsory postprimary education is to provide exploratory courses by which the special aptitudes of the pupils may be discovered and developed. It recognizes that the pupils will comprise two distinct groups who may be designated the " continuers " and the " leavers." It has been impressed with the evident wastage due to pupils entering the existing post-primary schools and leaving without having completed any definite course. This will not obtain under the new system. It believes that those who are compelled by circumstances to proceed from the intermediate schools directly into employment will be far better equipped for the battle of life than under the old system, and, moreover, that an increasing proportion of them will continue their education in evening continuation and technical classes. It also believes that the proportion of those who will proceed to full-time higher secondary education will increase under the new system, and that the secondary schools proper will be thronged with genuine " continuers " both better prepared to enter upon higher studies and more likely to complete the courses upon which they embark. It therefore recommends —- (3) That intermediate classes should form part of the education system, and that the types of schools or classes as suggested by Mr. Garrard be recommended to the Government as a basis, CHAPTER VI.—CONSOLIDATION OF SCHOOLS AND CLASSES. The Committee was frequently impressed during the course of its investigations with the manifest benefits accruing from the consolidation of schools and classes, particularly in rural areas. It is further of the opinion that the principle of consolidation is capable of progressive application, with great advantage to the pupils and the State, in the higher stages of the education system. The question may be discussed first with reference to the consolidation of sole-teacher schools ; next, of the Fifth and Sixth Standards in connection with the establishment of rural intermediate schools ; then of the Fifth Forms of district high schools ; and, finally, of the Sixth Forms of the smaller urban high schools. Its application to the Teachers' Training-colleges and University special, schools is dealt with in another part of the report. The first consolidated school in New Zealand was that established in 1924 at J, Piopio, via Te Ivuiti, in the North Island. This school the Committee visited, and its investigations confirm the favourable opinions expressed by the headmaster, Mr. R. S. Webster, in his evidence, extracts from which are reproduced below : — Extracts from the Evidence of Mr. R. S. Webster, Headmaster, Piopio Consolidated School. I have the honour to submit to you a report on consolidation as effected at Piopio, a district sixteen miles by road from Te Kuiti, in hilly country, where the children come largely from homes of butter-factory suppliers and small graziers. The consolidated school was opened in April, 1924. Of its initial trials comment is withheld, but the satisfaction felt by the settlers in. the scheme was shown by their effort in raising, in the first year, the sum of £600 net for ground improvements. In the choice of this locality, Piopio, the sponsors showed sound judgment, inasmuch that if s access accrued here, then in more favourable districts, with good roads, older settlements, and probably more prosperous communities, greater things could be expected. The schools closed were Arapae, Wairere, Te Mapara, Paemako, and Kohua Road —all sole-teacher-schools. These were consolidated upon a Grade IVa school, Piopio, with a small district high school attached and newly established. The present roll number is : Primary, 213 ; secondary, 32. Average: Primary, 170 ; secondary, 33. The staff consists of : Headmaster, teaching Standards V and VI (or Forms I and II) ; male assistant, teaching Standards 111 and IV ; lady assistant, teaching Standards I and 11, assisted by probationer ; infant-mistress and assistant teacher, Primer classes. There are two assistants in the secondary department. A separate room is provided for each adult teacher, with not more than fifty-five children.
Recommendation.
Principle of consolidation applicable at all stages.
Evidence of Headmaster, Fiopio Consolidated School,
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Some Comparative Costs. Salaries of all schools before consolidation are as follows : — school. sf ar y and Allowances. £ Paemako .. .. .. .. . . .. .. 263 Te Mapara .. .. .. .. .. .. 263 Arapao .. .. . . .. .. .. .. 263 Wairere .. .. .. .. .. . . . . 245 Piopio (all) .. .. .. . . . . L, 281 Koh.ua Road .. .. .. .. .. .. 120 Total .. .. .. .. .. .. £2,435 Piopio Salaries, 1929. £ Headmaster (house provided) .. .. .. .. 475 Male assistant .. .. . . , . .. .. 360 Infant-mi stress .. .. . . .. . . .. 290 Two assistants at £170 . . . . .. . . . . 340 Two secondary assistants . . .. .. .. . . 530 Probationer .. . . . . .. . . .. 80 Total .. .. .. .. .. .. £2,075 At Piopio the conveyance is managed internally, the headmaster and the mechanic (full time) being in charge. At other centres where conveyance is effected the carriage is done by contract. Both systems have their good and bad features, which must be obvious. I personally, for the safety of children, prefer the Piopio system. The total cost covering the period of twelve months, Ist October, 1928, to 30th September, 1929, was £1,304 7s. 4d. If this be added to the salaries, £2,075, it will be seen that £3,379 7s. Ad. does not mean, as has occurred to the minds of critics, a saving to the Department. It is, however, balanced on the credit side by something that cannot be set out in £ s. d. —viz., happier children, brightened minds, and, I believe, some little extra knowledge beyond that obtained by most children in sole-teacher schools. The greatest distance children are conveyed is ten miles. The average speed is fifteen miles per hour where the roads are good. During 1924-29 no accidents have happened to vehicles while children were conveyed. As in any system, rules are made to regulate the scheme and to be observed by driver and scholar. I should be failing in both courtesy and gratitude if 1 did not here comment upon the consideration shown the school-bus by lorry-drivers, service-car drivers, and local motorists, who always give the school-bus the road. The total distance run for the period I have given was 24,699 miles. Longest run, twenty miles return. Longest time for return journey, 1 hour 30 minutes. Latest time in winter child set down, 4 p.m. (Note. —This child had then one mile and a half to walk or ride, as it preferred.) Earliest time child picked up, 8.15 a.m. Number of children carried at end of August term, 143. Greatest load number, thirty-nine pupils. Picking-up of Children. —As in a tram service, so is the service of picking up children carried out: trams do not stop at everyone's gate, so neither do school-buses. No child, provided the bus passes his door, has to walk more than a couple of hundred yards. On wet days, however, the bus stops at all gateways to pick up passengers. By-road Children. —It would be impossible to run up every by-road, for time is limited in these things. In fact, I think such a procedure would be penalizing the many for the few. Our system requires that the children on by-roads walk or ride to the buses. At the junction of the by-road and the bus route a shelter and horse-paddock are provided. Under the old system, if every child living over two miles from the closed schools had to ride to school, out of those conveyed at present seventy would have to ride, whereas now only fifteen children ride to the bus. A large number of these seventy children would probably not have started school until they were 6-| years old, while but few in the conveyed area do not start school when they are 5 years of age. Is the consolidated school more efficient than the sole-charge school ? That can be answered from departmental files. lam convinced that physically, on account of games, drill, &c., and better environment, the children at a consolidated school are gaining an advantage. In the small school the children, either in groups or singly, journeyed to and from school. These folk ranged in ages from 5 years to 16 years of age. The roads in many cases were but rarely used. Needless to say, many a mother has had anxious thoughts of her child's moral welfare. To-day, with consolidation, parents have assured me that that misgiving has vanished. The conveyed child in the majority of cases is picked up and set down at his own gate. Before consolidation was effected in this area less
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than ten children gained proficiency certificates in 1923. The following table shows Proficiency Examination results :— '
Total number in Standard VI, period 1924 to 1929 (to-day), 144. A return showing since 1924 the number of pupils and year's attendance in secondary department is as follows : 1 year forty-three pupils ; 2 years forty-five pupils ; 3 years twenty pupils ; 4 years five pupils ; 5 years two pupils. Results for the year 1928 were as follows : Public Service Entrance, nine passed ; Junior National Scholarship, one passed ; Teachers' D, one passed in two groups. At the inauguration of the scheme a draft of mentally and physically slow-moving children were admitted to this school. The Inspectors' report for 1929 shows that this school compares very favourably with the best town school. Costing Upkeep of Conveyance. —A garage is situated in the school-grounds, where the buses, five in number, are under the supervision of a mechanic, who attends to the running repairs. Tires, benzine, material, and accessories are all purchased at Government rates, or by contract, or through the Store Control Board.
Schedule of Vehicles.
Only four vehicles are used daily for the carriage of children ; the fifth vehicle is a standby. If consolidation became general a standby vehicle need not be at every centre —one or two in each education district would be sufficient; but such a vehicle is necessary. The cost per mile run for a period of twelve months was 12-7 d. The cost per day per conveyed child for conveyance was llT2d. Cost per day for transport was £6 12s. 3d. In regard to the cost of transport, I would point out that here at Piopio the roads are badly surfaced, and run through hilly country ; thus the benzine-consumption per mile is not low, the average being a,bout ten miles per gallon. Tires in one size give 5,000 miles, and in another 8,000 miles. These are not high figures, though best British grades are fitted. Depreciation is charged at 12| per cent, per annum, while interest is reckoned on the book value at 4|- per cent. The Committee also visited the consolidated school at Oxford, Canterbury, which was established a year later than that at Piopio. Other similar consolidated schools, not visited, are in operation at Lower Mangorei (Taranaki), Ruawai Plains (Auckland), and Hawarden (Canterbury). Wherever opportunity presented itself the Committee took evidence from Inspectors, headmasters, School Committeemen, and parents regarding the system. As with any new undertaking, it was evident that there were initial difficulties which longer experience with the system will undoubtedly remove ; but one fact which specially impressed the Committee was the fact that no one who had once had experience of the new system desired to return to the old order of things. Similar successful results were found in the case of the Oamaru-Blenheim-Rotorua type of junior high schools, in which the Fifth and Sixth Standards were consolidated to form a sufficiently large intermediate department to admit of the organization of parallel courses. Coming to the higher secondary stage, the Committee was impressed by the obvious disadvantages under which pupils attending rural post-primary schools laboured with respect to the higher form work. At Rotorua the headmaster, Mr.
Other consolidated schools visited.
Consolidation ot Fifth and Sixth Standards.
Consolidation of Fifth and Sixth Forms.
Year Proficiency Competency j Failllr „ Certificate. Certificate, j 1924 .... 20 2 2 1925 .... 17 1 2 1926 .... 27 1 2 1927 .. .. 23 2 1928 .. .. 25 1929 .. .. 19 .. 1 Total 131 6 7
Make. capacity" Horse-power. Type. Date of Purchase. Capital Value (New). I Tons. ' £ s. d. Albion .. .. 36 24- H 8/4/27 726 4 9 Albion .. ..36 24 if 14/11/27 717 6 4 Commerce .. .. 36 28-9 H 1/2/26 500 0 0 Commerce .. .. 36 28-9 H 10/8/26 j 510 0 0 Ford .. ... .. 34 28 If 18/9/29 213 11 0
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A. R. Ryder, M.A., called attention to the heavy work entailed on the principal and staff by the presence of a small number of senior students for whom the school afforded the only means of studying for University Entrance Scholarship, and even degree work. The Committee also observed that at the Piopio School there were only five pupils in the fourth year and two pupils in the fifth year of secondary work. Similarly, at Oxford, with a total secondary department of twenty-seven pupils, the headmaster submitted a course of study extending right up to Form VI. The Committee has reason to believe that there are a number of similar small Fifth Forms in district high and Sixth Forms in the smaller high schools which might with advantage be consolidated upon the same principle as has been found so satisfactory at the lower stage. Such consolidation would require to be effected by the concentration of these small classes at convenient centres where hostel accommodation is available. It should not be difficult to determine the point at which the cost of transference of small groups to convenient centres, whether by rail, road, or hostel allowances, would be economically as well as educationally sound. In arriving at such a determination consideration would need to be given to such matters as the saving effected in respect of class-room accommodation and staffing (as where class-rooms and teachers previously utilized for small numbers are set free for fuller use), and by the concentration of advanced science students in selected schools, thus obviating the necessity of providing the most expensive laboratory equipment and apparatus in every post-primary school in the country for the sake of one or two senior pupils. The Committee is further of the opinion that the same principle might with advantage also be followed out in urban areas, being convinced that by the concentration of all Sixth Form work in one selected school in each education district considerable economy would be effected in respect of both capital and annual expenditure and better results obtained. (4) The Committee therefore recommends further consolidation of schools and classes where practicable, so as to ensure an adequate education, particularly for children in rural districts. CHAPTER VII.—SCHOLARSHIP FUNDS TO BE USED FOR MAINTENANCE BURSARIES TO ASSIST DESERVING PUPILS TO CONTINUE THEIR POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION TO HIGHER STAGES. The question of scholarships was brought under the notice of the Committee from two totally different angles. On the one hand, the Rev. H. lv. Archdall, M.A., headmaster of King's College (Church of England), Auckland, speaking on behalf of the Registered (non-State) Secondary Schools' Association, of which he has since become the president, urged that Junior and Senior National Scholarships should be made tenable at registered private schools if the parents of the holders desired to send them there in preference to the State schools. In this request he was supported by the Rev. Brother Benignus, Director of the Sacred Heart College, Auckland, and the Rev. Father T. A. Gilbert, M.A., Rector of St. Bede's College, Christchurch— both registered Catholic secondary schools. On the other hand, Mr. A. R. Ryder, M.A., headmaster of the Rotorua JuniorSenior High School brought before the Committee the very serious disadvantages under which the pupils of country schools labour as compared with those of the city secondary schools in respect of the competitive University Entrance Scholarship Examinations. Mr. Ryder put the matter as follows : — Extract from the Evidence of Mr. A. R. Ryder, M.A., Headmaster, Rotorua High School. With regard to University education, I think more should be done for the country boys and girls than at present in assisting them with their University education. A boy in the town gets a bursary after doing one year's post-matriculation work, and he costs his parents nothing. A boy here, unless he gets a scholarship, has absolutely no chance of getting a university education. We have an example of a boy who was top for the Auckland Province. He is a most capable boy —the son of a workingman, who is prepared to make sacrifices for him. But we are up against it when it comes to competitive examinations. We got this one candidate. The Auckland Grammar School got twenty-eight. I taught
Recommendation.
Scholarships not tenable in non-State Schools.
Pupils of country high schools at a disadvantage.
Evidence ol Headmaster, Rotorua High School.
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there, and I know the calibre —they specialize in that particular examination. The result is that it is a difficult matter for a boy to obtain a University Scholarship in spite of the fact that we say we are opening the University for all. Something should be done to assist those boys. In view of these representations the Committee made inquiry into the whole question of the method of awarding State scholarships in New Zealand. It found, as regards the Junior and Senior National Scholarships, that these scholarships were instituted as an adjunct to the free-place system, and that the original intention was that the fund should be utilized for the purpose of providing " boarding scholarships " for country children who were unable to take advantage of the provision made for free railway carriage daily to and from the secondary schools. In order to eliminate the objectionable features of the competitive examination system it was decided to award the scholarships to all candidates who obtained a certain percentage of the possible marks. In order to ensure that the essential object of the scholarship fund should be achieved —namely, to enable children not otherwise in a position to benefit by the free-place system to do so —it was decided to restrict the scholarships to children of parents whose income did not exceed £250 per annum. The Committee finds (1) that, owing to the fact that the funds available for these scholarships are limited, it has been the practice to vary the standard from year to year sufficiently to ensure that the number of scholarship-winners is proportionate to the money available. The effect of this has been to defeat entirely the ostensibly non-competitive basis of the examination since the scholarships are awarded to the adjusted percentage of candidates at the head of the examination list. It also finds (2) that owing to the removal of the income-limit the original intention that the whole benefit of the scholarship fund should go to deserving candidates genuinely in need of such assistance has been stultified. In the case of the University Entrance Scholarships, of which twenty-one are provided for by the State directly out of the Education vote, and fourteen indirectly per medium of the statutory grant to the New Zealand University, the Committee finds that both types are awarded upon the results of one and the same competitive examination, the latter to the first twelve and the former to the second twelve candidates upon the examination list. A scrutiny of the results of this examination for 1929 strongly bears out Mr. Ryder's complaint, in that, of the first fourteen candidates on the list, only two were pupils of schools outside the four main cities, and, of the twenty-one next following, nine were so gained. These eleven scholarships were distributed amongst the following provincial centres : Wanganui, Timaru, Nelson, Oamaru, Invercargill, Palmerston North, and Hamilton. No other country schools secured a place amongst the thirty-five successful competitors. The fact that the higher leaving-certificate now entitles the holder to free University education has converted these scholarships, in effect, into maintenance bursaries, and it is further clear from a perusal of the names of the successful candidates that not a few of them were won by pupils whose parents are in more than comfortable circumstances. When it is understood that at schools like the Auckland Grammar School, to which Mr. Ryder referred, pupils remain at school two and even three years after matriculating, in order to be prepared for this examination, the economic position becomes clearer still, for it is manifestly not within the means of the majority of parents to keep their children in attendance at higher secondary schools so long. The conclusion of the Committee is, therefore, that these scholarships are now, for the most part, beyond the reach of deserving candidates from country schools or candidates whose parents are in straitened or even moderate circumstances. The attention of the Committee was also directed to the fact that the scales of marks for both examinations in unduly loaded on the academic side, with the result that almost the whole of the interest and energies of the candidates are turned in that direction. The scale for the University Entrance Examination, for example, sets the following relative value upon the subjects named : — Subject. Marks. Subject. Marks. Latin .. . . 600 Home science . . 300 Mathematics . . 600 History . . . . 300 French . . . . 400 Geography . . . . 200 Agriculture .. . . 300
Original purpose of fund defeated.
City schools secure preponderance of scholarships.
Scholarship marking scales loaded in favour of academic subjects.
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In the same way, in the National Scholarship Examination scale, the emphasis is, in the opinion of the Committee, wrongly placed, as follows : — Subject. Marks. Subject. Marks. Latin . . . . 400 Agriculture . . 200 French . . . . 400 Home science . . 200 Mathematics . . 400 Geography . . 200 History . . . . 300 Having regard to the dependence of the prosperity of this Dominion upon its primary industries, the Committee is convinced that it is not in the best interests of the country that the best brains in the schools should be forced in this way to concentrate on purely academic studies, and diverted from the study of such subjects as agriculture, home science, history, and geography. The Committee finds that the total sum of money paid by the State during 1929 on account of these scholarships amounted to £15,907, made up as follows : — £ Junior and Senior National Scholarships . . . . 11,268 University National Scholarships . . . . . . 3,407 Junior University Scholarships .. .. .. 1,232 Total.. . . . . . . . . £15,907 Having regard to all the circumstances, the Committee is convinced that this large annual sum, approximately £16,000, should be restored to the original purpose of assisting deserving country children and the children of parents in moderate and straitened circumstances to obtain the benefits of higher education. It is further of opinion that the disbursement of this fund may properly be entrusted to the local educational authorities in consultation with the Senior Inspector for each education district. With regard to the application of the Registered (non-State) Secondary Schools' Association, the Committee is agreed that the benefit of the Bursary Fund should extend to all children in New Zealand, each individual application to be dealt with strictly in accordance with its intrinsic merits. The Committee therefore adopted the following resolution :• — (5) That this Committee is of opinion that the scholarship system is no longer necessary as a means of providing free education beyond the primary stage, and recommends that the funds now applied to the provision of National and University Entrance Scholarships be utilized for the purpose of providing maintenance bursaries to assist deserving pupils to continue their education to the higher stages, the awards to be based not upon competitive external examinations, but upon consideration of individual eases recommended by the Senior Inspector or Superintendent of each education district. CHAPTER VIII. —PROMINENCE TO BE GIVEN TO AGRICULTURE IN ALL SCHOOL CURRICULA. The opening paragraph of a report entitled " Some Lessons from Rural Denmark," presented to the Government of Victoria in 1924 by Mr. Frank Tate. M.A., Director of Education, reads as follows : — " llow Education helped a Poor Country (o Become a Rich One." " For a tiny country with few natural advantages, but many very real disadvantages, of soil, and. climate, and contour ; with its peasants but lately emerged from serfdom ; and consequently ill-trained and ill-informed ; with its people dispirited and almost bankrupt by war, suffering from lack of national feeling, and
Fund to be used for maintenance bursaries.
Disbursement to be entrusted to local education authorities.
Benefit of fund to be extended to all.
Recommendation.
Place of education in an agricultural country.
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a prey to hopeless materialism—for such a country to become in a few generations one of the richest and most prosperous countries of Europe and to lead the world in methods of rural industry is surely a great achievement. Yet this is what Denmark has done, and in its achievement the work of the schools has had a very important and honourable place." It is just such an important and honourable place that the schools of the Dominion ought, in the opinion of the Committee, to be made to play in bringing about a similar result in this country, the more especially because in contradistinction with the conditions described above, its immense advantages of soil and climate are the heritage of a people physically stalwart, self-reliant, and otherwise well educated. It seems necessary at the outset of this section of the report to make clear the essential dependence of the Dominion upon its primary industries. This dependence it shares with the Australian Commonwealth, as compared with which it enjoys not only its immunity from droughts, but also this special advantage : that its peculiar geographical contour has hitherto saved it from any seriously ill-balanced aggregation of its population in huge urban centres. In a recent address delivered in Melbourne a distinguished New-Zealander, Sir G. A. Julius, B.Sc., 8.E., chairman of the Australian Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, enunciated the four main economic principles upon which he considered the future prosperity of Australia and New Zealand must be built up. These may be summarized briefly as follows : —■ (1) That under present world conditions no community is, or can be, entirely self-contained ; each has products which it must sell to buyers outside its own population. (2) That from the very fact that we have adopted a high standard of living, it is difficult, if not impossible, for us to find a market for our products amongst the peoples inhabiting the countries adjacent to us, because in almost every case these peoples have a very much lower standard of living than our own, so that we are compelled to find outside markets farther afield and to suffer the extra handicap of added transport when it comes to selling our products in these foreign markets. (3) That for a long time to come we cannot hope to find anything other than a domestic market for the products of our manufacturing industries, except in a very small way ; that the smallness of this market must preclude the development of such mass production methods as would enable us, especially in view of the extra transport, so to reduce our high production-costs as to be able successfully to compete in the world's markets for the supply of manufactured products ; and that our export trade must for a long time continue to be confined, as it has been confined during the last decade, almost entirely to the products of our country industries— that is, of agriculture : (4) That by increasing the prosperity of our country industries, upon which our export thus wholly depends, we automatically increase the market for our city industries, and make it possible for them — or, at least, some of them—to develop and to thrive ; but that we cannot achieve the latter without first ensuring the former, and no tariff or artificial measure can, in the end, alter this fact. " As things are," concludes Sir George Julius, " the public and the politician must be brought to realize that the stimulation of the work of the Agricultural Departments ought to be the first consideration of Government, and that these Departments should be the last to have expenditure curtailed in times of financial stress. In fact, one is almost justified in saying that in such times the work of agricultural research and education ought to be still further extended, developed, and encouraged, as the best and safest means for assuring a speedy return to more prosperous times."
Dominion's dependence on primary industries.
Opinion of Sir G. A Julius.
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The order of reference of this Committee does not extend to matters of landsettlement and the development of the agricultural and pastoral industries of the Dominion generally. These are matters of special Government policy upon which the Committee is not required to express an opinion. What is sought to be emphasized by the above excerpts from Sir George Julius's address is that it is of the utmost importance that every New-Zealander should be keenly conscious of the Dominion's dependence upon the development of its primary industries as the foundation for the prosperity of its industrial, commercial, and professional elements as well—in short, for its whole population. Shortly after his assumption of office as Minister of Education, the Hon. Harry Atmore began to emphasize the necessity for giving the education system an agricultural bias. This is evidenced, for example, by the following extract from his reply to a deputation from the Advisory Board of the Wanganui Apprenticeship Committee as reported in the Wanganui Chronicle, 11th March, 1929 : — Extract prom Address given by the Minister of Education, the Hon. Harry Atmore. The Minister pointed out that unemployment in New Zealand was generally due to the fact that academic considerations had dominated New Zealand's system. There had to be a greater agricultural bias in the education system, combined with a more vigorous land policy. They would only get the community advantages in the country with closer settlement. The ability to purchase secondary products depended on primary production, and there was no chance of giving employment to every one in the towns if the towns were overpopulated in proportion to the country. The Minister placed the various callings in order of their urgency from New Zealand's point of view as follows : Agricultural, technical, commercial, and professional. The boy who topped the class at school was usually the academic youth, while others might be actually more useful. Education had not only been keeping boys in the towns who had been born in the towns, but it had been combing the country for the brightest boys in order to place them in the towns. Such an " agricultural bias " is, in the opinion of the Committee, essential to the vital needs of the Dominion. In furtherance of this policy it has become imperative that a fresh and definite orientation should be given, to our educational curricula by the inclusion of agriculture as an integral subject of instruction in all schools ; for it is of the utmost importance to the welfare and future prosperity of the Dominion that the city dweller and the professional man should become, though not agricultural workers, at least agriculturally-minded members of the body politic, thoroughly seized of the country's dependence upon its primary industries and in a position as citizens and electors to take a sympathetic and intelligent view of its land-settlement and allied rural problems. Rich and poor, high and low, the conviction must be borne in upon our people that our prosperity, our comfort, and the very maintenance of our standard of living depend upon the development and efficiency of our primary industries. With the steady and persistent inculcation of these facts upon the minds of the rising generation —girls as well as boys —it is believed that parallel with the promotion of closer land-settlement and increased primary production there will be a growing appreciation of the importance of the farming industry, and a keener desire on the part of our young people to turn to the land as a means of livelihood. The object of the teaching of agriculture in the schools should, therefore, be twofold. In the first place, it should aim to give every pupil an adequate and vital conception of the country's dependence upon the farming industry, to elevate the vocation of agriculture to a position of dignity and respect second to none in the Dominion, and inculcate a genuine love of the soil and a reasonably sufficient theoretical and practical knowledge of the broad fundamental principles that underlie its successful agricultural and pastoral exploitation and conservation. Such an aim, in the opinion of the Committee, is not less capable of realization in urban than in rural areas, and no effort should be spared to that end. In the second place, upon this general foundation there should be organized a Dominion-wide system of specialized agricultural education for those boys and girls who can be attracted, from urban as well as rural areas, to enter upon vocations connected with the soil. The day is past when farming could be considered the one occupation in life where specialized training was unnecessary. It is the realization of this fact that has made the success of rural Denmark so
Opinion of the Hon. the Minister of Education.
Agriculture a necessary subject for all pupils.
A twofold purpose in teaching agriculture.
Specialized training needed for farming Industry.
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outstanding ; for there farming has become a recognized " profession," profitably practised by graduates of university special schools and agricultural colleges. It is, therefore, highly necessary that there should be established throughout New Zealand a system of agricultural education in which the provision made for the theoretical and practical study of this vital subject shall at least be equal to the provision made for the study of those subjects which lead to the vocations of commerce, law, medicine, engineering, and the like. The proportion of pupils in the schools proceeding to the latter is altogether incommensurate with the prominence hitherto given to academic studies therein. What the Committee desires to see accomplished is a complete shifting of emphasis for the great bulk of our children from academic studies to those which relate to our primary industries. It is not for a moment suggested that there should be any neglect of or slackening of interest in cultural education as such ; nor is it proposed that there should be instituted any narrow or too early specialization in this field. What is proposed is that in the elementary stage agriculture should be given a prominent and effective place in the curriculum, that in the intermediate stage it should be taught in every school with sufficient emphasis and opportunity for practical work to enable pupils to discover and reveal their own aptitude for, and attitude towards, farming as a vocation, and that in the higher secondary stage there should be a sufficient number of residential and other schools staffed and equipped so as to enable effective specialization to be undertaken either for immediate employment in agricultural pursuits or for admission to the agricultural colleges of university rank. The Committee freely recognizes that in all branches of the education system the subject of agriculture has, on paper, been included in the curricula of our schools. But it has been abundantly demonstrated by the evidence taken that it has not had that pride of place, that emphasis, or that practical application which it ought to have. Except, therefore, in a few isolated schools and districts, to which reference will be made below, the teaching of agriculture in our schools may be said so far to have been not very successful. There appear to be two main causes of this non-success —(1) the low estimate set upon its value in the marking scales drawn up by the University and the Education Department for the scholarship and other school examinations, examples of which have already been given in an earlier part of the report ; (2) the resulting absence of any dynamic conviction on the part of the teachers as to its importance, and their lack of any real knowledge of the subject. The Committee was strongly impressed by the following evidence submitted by Mr. C. R. Smith, formerly Agricultural Instructor at the King Edward Technical College, Dunedin, now himself successfully engaged in farming pursuits : — Extracts from the Evidence oe Mr. C. R. Smith, Farmer, Dunedin. First, I would like to give the Committee an outline of my experience and qualifications as a witness. I was for twenty-five years a public-school teacher, and for four years acted as agricultural instructor. In addition to this, I have had seven years' business experience as manager and accountant, and for over twenty years 1 have been concerned with farming (dairying, sheep, and agriculture), having been personally engaged in this occupation for over fourteen years. Agricultural education as given at present, — (a) As given in Standards I to VI, comprising nature-studies, school-gardening, and elementary science : (b) As given in district high schools, where pupils who have passed Standard VI get one hour's lesson per week in each of the following subjects: (1) Physics, (2) chemistry, (3) agriculture and botany, (4) practical work in school-garden. This course is usually a two-year one, extending in some cases to three years. Criticism, of the System for ex-Standard VI Pupils.—ln the first place, it is offered to but a fraction of them residing at or adjacent to boroughs where these high schools are situated, and of this fraction so favoured most of them take the course merely as a stepping-stone to the professions which they finally enter. The subject of agriculture in these cases merely serves as one of the subjects to enable them to secure matriculation. It is also the case that the course is practically a two-year one, instead of three. The instruction given is tragically short, limited to one hour per subject per week, when the minimum should be three hours per subject per week if instruction worthy of the name is to be given. As a rule no, or little, instruction is given in such important and necessary subjects as (1) animal husbandry ; (2) milk, its constitution and proper control; (3) and especially the life-history and control of bacteria in relation to (a) milk and its products, and (b) the soil.
Causes of earlier failure.
Evidence of Mr, C. R. Smith, Dunedin.
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In this way the main supply of workers in the primary industries get practically no theoretical instruction in the principles underlying their life's daily work. The urgent and clamant need of the people is theoretical in addition to practical instruction in the calling in which they spend their lives. In the primary and secondary industries, in which 95 per cent, of the people spend the major part of their time mainly and practically, as far as the Government of the country is concerned, theory or instruction in the principles that underly their life's work is divorced from practice. This should not be, for both are necessary and both should be taught hand-in-hand. The importance of the primary industries is manifest, for the following reasons : — (a) They are the main New Zealand industries. (b) Out of fifty-six million pounds sterling brought into New Zealand alone last year, fifty-five millions were brought in by the primary industries and less than one million was brought in by the secondary industries. In other words, we sell to the world agricultural products only. The work of the secondary industries seems but to supply our own people's needs. Hence, if we are to increase our national income, it must be done from and by the primary industry. (c) A large section of our people are engaged in this primary industry, either as producers or middlemen, or as merchants handling or selling the goods ; and all these get the " practice " without the theory—at least, the State does not give it to them. The State does a great deal for some of its people. For its doctors, lawyers, ministers, surveyors, mining engineers, school-teachers —in short, for its professional section—it gives at great national expense a complete education, both practice and theory. Take the case of the medical and teaching professions : We have special medical schools and training colleges in which a complete training is given. For 5 per cent, of our people we provide all our higher educational equipment—viz., our high schools and our universities. Theory and practice are not divorced. The Needs of the Primary and Secondary Industries. —Theoretical instruction must accompany practical instruction, and it is essential that it should be given during youth, during the apprentice period. Our age and educational experience now persistently demand that the normal educational period of our children should extend to sixteen years, which means three years of post-primary education. All men and women cannot be professionals —only 5 per cent, of them can be. The others must be workers in trades and industry. And why should theoretical instruction be imperative in the case of the one and not of the other ? The thing to be considered is, How can this post-primary period be spent in the case of the recruit for the primary industries ? All small schools should be abolished wherever it is possible to motor the children of such school to a newly-built or already-built school which would serve as a consolidated school or district high school (give it any name you like), where the staff would consist of not less than five or six highly-trained teachers, and on this staff there would be at least one fully-qualified Agricultural Instructor holding a B.Ag. degree. In these consolidated schools there should be at least two courses of instruction —one, an academic one preparing for the professions, and the other an agricultural one. The compulsory subjects of study for such agricultural course, in addition to ordinary academic subjects, should be—(l) Physics ; (2) chemistry ; (3) botany ; (4) agriculture ; (5) animal husbandry ; (6) study of milk, its composition, care and control. The subjects numbered (1) to (4) should be at least a two-year course of not less than three hours per week, and during the third year these subjects should be continued ; but subjects (5) and (6) should be given special attention. The basis and scope of the teaching in numbers (3) and (4) — agriculture and botany—should be such a book as Connell and Hadfield's " Agriculture." The scope of No. (2) —viz., chemistry —should be the principles of chemistry, with a fairly good knowledge of the elements and their compounds concerned in plant and animal life—viz., (a) oxygen, (b) hydrogen, (c) nitrogen, (d) carbon, (e) phosphorus, (/) sulphur, (g) calcium, (h) potash, (i) sodium, (j) silicon. (k) iron. These are the elements concerned in plant and animal life. These consolidated or similar schools should be equipped with sufficient physical and chemical laboratory equipment to adequately provide the instruction as outlined above, and generally its scope and quality would be equal to similar instruction as now given in our city high schools. All opportunity of illustrating the practical application of agricultural principles taught in the school could be readily obtained from the adjoining farms by co-operation with the owners thereof, who would gladly render help. This suggested course of study, besides filling a great need as regards farming proper, would also meet the needs of those engaged in the allied industries, such as cheese and butter workers, artificial-manure workers, &c. A three-hours course per week for two years in physics and chemistry is urgently needed by the workers in these industries, and, if so given, what an equipment it would be providing them ! In these days of competition in the dairying world quality tells every time and our dairying-industry workers are entitled to a knowledge of such principles, and this knowledge, added to the mechanical perfection of our present practice, would surely be national gain. Agricultural Instruction. —You will notice that I advocate the employment on the staff of the consolidated school of at least one B.Ag. Instructor. How could we secure a supply of these men ? At present our best men furnish themselves with a 8.A., B.Sc., &c., degree. Why not hold out an inducement to our coming young teachers to qualify for the B.Ag. degree by offering a salary commensurate with the work undertaken and the results expected from a purely farming community. Pay an increased salary for these positions and you will get ample supplies of men. In the sections of agriculture devoted to plant-growth, plant-feeding, nature and treatment of soil, and the nature and use of artificial manures, the scope and quality of the three years' instruction in the course I have outlined would make our future farmers masters of these subjects. Then, our Government Agricultural Instructors would not require to labour the subject of rotational grazing of paddocks, or when or where to apply this or that phosphate or nitrate or potassic artificial manure. The subject should be and can be made as understandable as the multiplication table. The question is, Can these things be done ? Can the agricultural knowledge be imparted in three years ? I say that it can. I had the opportunity and did it myself in the Technical High School, Dunedin. The senior pupils were as
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familiar with phosphate, nitrate, the alkalies, their use and abuse in agriculture, as children are with ordinary English print. It is all a question of systematic instruction for a fair period of time —viz., three years. Is the advancement of the primary industries and the fuller use of cultivable land, in which at present there are tremendous latent possibilities of production, not worth the slight rearrangement necessary in our educational machinery ? Would this cultivable land of ours, so handled by intelligent agricultural workers, not maintain a tremendously increased number of them ? Unemployment would vanish, for there would be work to do. And, so far, there is no limit to the world's consumption of our wool, lamb, and dairy-produce. A six-teacher consolidated school would not cost more to build and maintain than six or eight small country schools as at present, and the better and fuller illustrated teaching would be worth while. For these reasons I advocate agricultural education for the workers in our primary industries as a national necessity, long overdue, and a national insurance against unemployment. For a numerous land population means increased secondary production and consumption, and thus a self-contained and contented people are encouraged. In the opinion of the Committee, the first step to be taken to remedy the existing state of affairs is to lay down the principle that in any New Zealand educational marking scale agriculture should rank equally with the highest-marked subject — Latin, French, mathematics, or whatever it may be. In other words, it should occupy pride of place in the syllabus of all schools. In the same way, it will not do any longer to allot four or five hours a week to the study of a foreign language, and only half an hour a week to agriculture. It is suggested, for example, that in the secondary schools it might be taken concurrently with Latin for all non-Latin pupils, and for the same length of time. But however it is arranged, the point is that agriculture should henceforth be a major and not a minor subject on the timetable of all New Zealand schools —primary, intermediate, and higher secondary. These proposals, together with those made earlier in this section for the organization of a full range of compulsory exploratory courses from 11 plus to 15 years of age, should effectually put an end to the diversion of all the best brains of the schools into professional and clerical channels, and ensure that a due proportion of our most intelligent pupils will enter upon the agricultural course in the higher secondary schools. The second remedial measure is more difficult of accomplishment, but not less essential to the success of the Minister's policy. It is to secure that the whole personnel of the Education service should be brought to realize the paramount importance of the change which is to be made in the system, the success of which will inevitably be proportionate to the degree to which the administrative heads of the Department, the Inspectors, Training College Principals, and the teachers themselves become intelligently and whole-heartedly imbued with the spirit of the new outlook, and realize the true significance of the change-over from an academically and clericallyminded education system to an agriculturally-minded one. To accomplish this it will be necessary to offer to expert and enthusiastic teachers of agriculture salaries upon a scale at least equal to that enjoyed by teachers of foreign languages and other academic subjects. In other words, the old distinction in salary scales as between the so-called " professional " and " manual " teachers must be abolished, no less than the disparity in the subject-marking scales already referred to. The school staffs of the future in New Zealand should have as many teachers with the degree in agricultural science as teachers with the degree in arts or pure science. It will be no less important to ensure that our agricultural instructors receive profes sional training in the art of teaching equally with their academically-trained colleagues. With regard to the rank and file of the present teaching staffs, recourse must be had, as was suggested by Mr. B. Gr. Bidling, Agricultural Instructor of the Taranaki Education District, to the old method of gathering the teachers together on Saturday mornings, and in winter and summer vacation schools, for specialized training in their new work. Means must also be found by which all training-college students are both genuinely impressed with the new orientation of our education system, and adequately trained to give practical effect to it when they go out into the schools. As regards the Inspectorate, it will be necessary, in making new appointments, to see that the appointees are expert both practically and professionally in the same way, and that upon the Inspectorial staff of each of the reorganized education districts there is at least one such agricultural specialist capable of organizing the work, helping the teachers, and assessing the results achieved throughout his area. Finally, it will be essential that the heads of the Department enter loyally and enthusiastically into the spirit of the new movement, in order that those teachers who genuinely endeavour to carry it into effect in their schools may be able to count on the sympathetic consideration and support of the Department
Subject-emphasis to be changed.
Necessity for whole-hearted co-operation throughout the Education Service,
Some successful teachers of agriculture.
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with regard to equipment, facilities, staffing, and the like. The Committee feels that it would fail in its duty if it did not record its sense of high appreciation of the achievements of such pioneers as Mr. L. J. Wild, M.A., B.Sc., Principal of the Feilding Agricultural High School; Mr. J. E. Strachan, M.A., B.Sc., Principal of the Rangiora High School; and Mr. R. CI. Ridling, M.A., Agricultural Instructor of the Taranaki Education District, who, notwithstanding all the heavy handicaps which the old order of things laid upon them, have by their own personal enthusiasm and perseverance in the face of many difficulties succeeded both in educating the public opinion in their respective districts and in demonstrating in concrete form in the schools under their charge, that the policy which the Minister has adopted is capable of actual accomplishment. What, therefore, the Kowhai and Matamata Junior High Schools have done in the way of blazing the trail for the establishment of the change-over to the proposed new organization of our educational stages, the Taranaki Agricultural Club movement and the Feilding and Rangiora Agricultural High Schools have done for the new orientation of our whole educational system. The following extract from the evidence of Mr. L. J. Wild will show what has been accomplished at the Feilding School:— Extract from the Evidence oe Mr. L. J. Wild, M.A., B.Sc., Principal oe the Feilding Agricultural High School. I should like to say at the outset that for too long the education system of New Zealand has been dominated by a traditional system which served very well in the manufacturing and industrial centres of England from which it is derived, but which is obviously not suited to the needs of this country, which has a totally different environment, and the people of which have a totally different outlook and altogether different aims and objects. To illustrate what I mean I will take the subject of chemistry. In every secondary school in New Zealand chemistry is well taught; expensive equipment is provided and qualified teachers are engaged. I have no objection to the teaching of chemistry at all —it is right that it should be taught; but what must surprise anybody who gives consideration to the matter is that the allied subjects of biology, botany, and zoology have never been taught in this country, except in a few schools, although we have right at the doors of every school abundance of material for the teaching of these subjects, which, of course, gives not only the scientific training that the teaching of chemistry gives, but it also gets the pupils interested in what is going on around them, and, incidentally, interested in the life-processes of plants and animals—a subject which is of vast importance to New-Zealanders. Another point is that if we are going to have an education system in keeping with the environment of 90 per cent, of the people of New Zealand, and in keeping with the occupation which so many of them will ultimately follow, agriculture should have a more honoured place in the curriculum than it has had in the past, and when I returned to secondary teaching after being for a considerable number of years in an institution of University rank I determined that I would as far as possible see that agriculture got a proper place in the curriculum of the school. That is the position with regard to secondary schools and the teaching of agriculture. They all say they have an agricultural course. So they have. But go to a boys' high school —they have a very well equipped staff of trained teachers from the academic mill, competent to teach academic subjects, and they wish to have an agricultural course. They get some agricultural teacher —no doubt, highly qualified. The boys are initiated at the beginning of the year and those who seem to have the best brains are drafted into the academic courses. It has been customary to do so —every one wants it. I do not blame the schools ; I blame the people or the system which produces that state of affairs. Bright boys go into the special forms and at the end of five years go to the University, where they take a degree. It means that the agricultural instructor gets the " scum." There are a few parents who desire to have their boys take agriculture, but not many, and for the most part the agricultural teacher has to take what is left; and the instructor is merely one of perhaps twenty in the staff, and he is generally out of touch with the rest —his is a special department. Of course, if a boy wants to take matriculation he can do it. Every year we have candidates who pass matriculation. With regard to how we stand in relation to Massey College, unfortunately many of the boys, the sons of farmers, have to milk the cows; but there is an increasing .number of farmers who realize that it is not fair that their sons should not receive some sort of secondary education, and there are an increasing number who send their boys here, and they not only receive a good general education in English, literature, and the like, but they are kept in contact with farm conditions to which they have been accustomed and to which they will return. Where does the Massey College come in 1 Well, the boy is soon 16 years of age, and if he is a big, husky fellow he will be wanted on the farm, and if he is going to be a farmer he had better get on the farm as soon as possible. Further, his education has cost him £54 a year with us, but if he goes to a University he will cost his father three times that amount for four years, and most farmers cannot afford it, so we are not concerned with Massey in any way. Personally, I would go so far as to say that Ido not care whether we compete with Massey at all. For every hundred boys who come to this school I do not think there are more than one or two who could afford to send their boys to Massey College. We are dealing with sons of the bona fide farmer —the boys who will be bona fide farmers. We want to give him a secondary education of the best kind, which does not necessarily include Latin, French, or mathematics, but a good general education. That is the 3*
Evidence of Principal, Feilding Agricultural High School.
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position, and that answers the question as to whether we could compete with Massey or not. We are not in competition with Massey or Lincoln Colleges. We are a secondary school. We take boys from the primary schools : we will take them from Standard IV, we welcome them from Standard V. We are 110 more in competition with Massey College than the Wellington Boys' High School is in competition with Victoria University College. This matriculation syllabus dominates the system. People think we must supply everything simply because 1 per cent, of the boys are going to the University. I say, No. Let us arrange for the 90 per cent, who are going to finish their course in the secondary school. Their parents help to pay the education bill. I feel somewhat strongly on this matter, because I realize fully to what extent this has dominated the system. Before going further I will give a brief history of the Feilding Agricultural High School and our two farms. In 1921 the site of the school was selected, and funds were collected to pay for it. In this work the sub-committee, consisting of Messrs. H. Tolley, H. J. Booth, J. Knight, and A. H. Atkinson, did much magnificent work. Generous response to appeals for financial aid was made by the Kiwitea County Council, the Manawatu County Council, the Oroua County Council, and the Feilding Borough Council—£l,2oo in all. A site of 10 acres, costing £1,000, was purchased and conveyed to the Government free of debt. Later an adjoining 10 acres, costing £1,250, was purchased and conveyed to the Government free of debt on the undertaking, given by Sir Francis Bell, then Minister of Education, that a hostel would be provided. In 1922 the school was opened on the Ist February with 100 pupils and a staff of five. It was officially opened on the 11th May of that year by the late Mr. Massey, when a College carnival was held at which citizens raised £1,100, the debt to the bank was cleared off, the guarantee was duly burned, and about £400 was handed over for groundsimprovement and the like. In 1923 there was steady development, and work on the hostel was begun. This was finished in 1924, when we had fifteen boarders. Voluntary contributions totalling £950 for furnishing were received. In 1925 the outbreak of infantile paralysis caused a financial setback to the hostel. Nevertheless, the roll number at the school was up to 166. Good progress was made in 1926, and the Government consented to a lease of 178 acres as a school farm, and made a grant of £850 for the erection of farm buildings, purchase of implements, &c., and an annual grant of £400 for rent and maintenance. The Principal visited America to investigate methods in agricultural education. From 1927 onwards steady progress has continued. The roll number is now up to 200, and the staff has been increased to ten. Over fifty boys take vocational courses in agriculture. Thirty-six boarders are in residence, from all parts of the North Island. Merry Hill Farm. This farm comprises about 180 acres, including some native bush. It is situated at Makino, about one mile from the school. Stock carried : Southdown stud flock, sixty ; Romney stud flock, twenty-five ; Ryeland stud flock, five ewes and lambs. The fields are used as follows :— 1 Aa : Recently sown down in permanent pasture, including 5 acres of plots laid down in conjunction with the Department of Agriculture. 1 Ab : Barley ; part with Montgomery late red clover —special seed imported and supplied by Department of Agriculture. IB: 20 acres oats for crop. 2Aa : Temporary pasture, spelling. 2Ab : Temporary pasture, carrying stud ewes. 2 B : Being worked for swedes. 3 : Rough pasture, top-dressed, including experimental plots. 4B : Old permanent pasture, carrying ewes and lambs and a few purebred cattle. 4A : Horse-paddock. The North Road Farm. This farm comprises about 10 acres and adjoins the school. (1) One field is under cultivation for potatoes, mangolds, and maize (special strains brought by Mr. Wild from America). Remaining fields in permanent grass, worked under intensive rotational grazing system. (2) Cattle : pedigree Red Polls. (3) Buildings include animal-husbandry pavilion and wool-shed, piggery, dairy pavilion. All built by the boys. (4) Orchard section, with forty young trees. (5) Bee-keeping section (eight hives), with complete outfit for queen-bee rearing, honeyextraction, &c. (6) Poultry. Object of the Feilding Agricultural High School. The object of this school is to provide for boys and girls belonging to this and other rural districts such a training as will promote their physical, intellectual, and moral development, while at the same time keeping them in harmony with the essential conditions and environment of rural life, revealing to them the wealth of interest in it, and fitting them to promote the material progress of themselves and their fellows engaged in the great primary industries of the Dominion. The Essential Features of our System. —We have succeeded in creating a " rural" atmosphere in which boys from the country at once feel at home. With the school farm and contact with its operations, and with the various studs of pedigree cattle, sheep, and pigs, as well as ordinary breedingstock, boys are kept in touch with the sights, sounds, and activities of the farm under the best conditions. The school is essentially one in which agriculture has pride of place, not so much as a " subject of the curriculum "as a condition of school life. Other realms of mental and spiritual life are, however, by no means excluded. The art of speaking and writing, and training in community obligations, are central features in the internal organization and conduct of the school; an appreciation of art, literature, and music is encouraged as in other schools ; and the spirit of inquiry is fostered by research on the part of the members of the staff, and of pupils who reveal the necessary qualities of
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mind. The Board several years ago resolved that when making appointments to the staff the principle should be followed that, provided the general requirements of other classes of pupils were safeguarded, men appointed should have some training or experience in agriculture, so as to ensure complete sympathy on the part of all members towards the agricultural side. Courses provided in the School. Two courses are open to boys—(a) agricultural; (6) course for public examinations. (a) The agricultural course is a three-year course, English (including speech, writing, and literature), and also civics, being taken in all years. Arithmetic, drawing, and mensuration are taken in the first two years, and the treatment is as practical as possible, the work being related to work going on about us, such as farm costing, buildings being erected, &c. In history and geography, which are included in the first year, the work centres round the conditions and development of our own country and its neighbours. Other studies are book-keeping, chemistry, biology, and agriculture. First-year work in agriculture is chiefly " What we are doing and why we are doing it." " What we are doing " is, we hope, teaching good farm practice, as, season by season, the various operations are put in hand. " Why we do it "is teaching the theory underlying the practice. As real operations are noticed first, the attention and interest of the boys is gripped from the start; and herein lies the immense value to us of having our own school farm. In the second and third years arithmetic, mensuration, and building-construction—all of a practical continued ; the keeping of farm accounts is introduced in addition to the book-keeping begun in the first year ; the pure sciences come to be applied —thus, chemistry becomes agricultural chemistry ; biology becomes entomology, bee-keeping, &c. ; botany becomes agricultural botany; field husbandry and animal husbandry becomes broadened and deepened. Manual work in the field : Our attitude here is governed by the following principles —(a) There is a limit to the amount of heavy work boys from 14 to 17 years of age should be expected to do, and in any case we must not regard them as " labour-saving devices." (b) We think their time is best spent here in learning the things they will not be able to learn afterwards at home, and that we can leave to a large extent the manual arts that they can as well or better learn at home, (c) For those boys who do not come from farms we offer opportunity in the third year occasionally to work a team of horses, do a little ploughing, &c., under the direct supervision of the farm-manager, (d) We do not conceal the drudgery inseparable from farming, so that the boys who find they cannot stand up to hoeing mangolds, for example, in due season can decide on some other vocation, (e) All boys at some time during the three-year course get an opportunity for first-hand experience in such operations as the following : making or repairing a gate, painting a shed, overhauling an implement, splicing a rope, making a head-stall, repairing leather harness or canvas cow-cover, milking, milk-testing, and recording, putting in a post, making concrete, lambing a ewe, docking a lamb, castrating a lamb or pig, and so or. (b) Course for public examinations : Subjects are English, French, or Latin, mathematic, chemistry, history, and geography. Syllabus is as laid down by the Education Department and the University. Courses for Girls. —(b) course as above for boys. (c) Commercial course : A specialized course training girls for office-work. Besides general subjects, such as English, history, civics, &c., and, of course, hygiene and home science, technical instruction is given in book-keeping, shorthand, and typing. (d) course (home science, arts and crafts) : This is a non-examination course for girls who do not intend to make their living outside the home. Besides English and other general subjects, teaching is given in home science, cooking, neddlework, crafts, and so on. It should correspond closely to the (a) course, but there appear to be more mothers who wish their girls to leave home than there are fathers who wish their boys to leave the farm. Brief Review of Results. When we opened in 1922 we had twenty-three boys taking the agricultural course. The then Minister of Education prophesied failure. He said, " Lots of schools have agricultural courses, and the farmers do not want them." We said, "We are not going to have a classical school with an agricultural course for those who want it, but an agricultural school with a classical course for those who want it," and we have held our way. Each year more boys come for agriculture. The Department became interested, then sympathetic, and then helpful. Last year there were over fifty boys taking the agricultural course, and this year thirty-three new boys have entered for it, coming from Dargaville, Wairoa, Waitara, Wellington, and intermediate places. The following figures are from the last available report of the Minister of Education : — Boys leaving School at end of 1927 and taking up Farming. Per Cent. Of leavers from secondary schools .. .. .. 17 Of leavers from technical schools . . .. .. 17 Of leavers from district high schools .. .. .. 31 Of leavers from all schools .. . . .. .. 19 Of the leavers from Feilding Agricultural High School the percentage was 44 per cent., and for the year 1928 our figure is nearly 60 per cent. These figures speak for themselves. The Committee was so impressed with the success of the Feilding and Rangiora Schools that it gave serious consideration to the question of the establishment of additional schools of this type, and arrived at the conclusion that there is room for about six such schools, situated at convenient centres. This conclusion, however, does not mean that there should be only six schools offering specialized
Dp to six residential agricultural high schools recommended,
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practical agricultural courses of secondary grade, but that that would be a sufficient number of residential agricultural high schools with fully-equipped farms. That there are other means of obtaining a knowledge of the practical side of the course will appear from the following summary of three alternative schemes which have been successfully tried out in connection with the agricultural courses in other technical high schools. Extract prom Report prepared by the New Zealand Technical-school Teachers' Association, submitted in Evidence by Mr. L. J. Wild, as President of the Association. (a) Several schools are quite satisfied that their present equipment is sufficient for their purposes. For example, there is a large school (Hamilton) in the heart of a great dairying district. The majority of boys come from dairy-farms and can be spared only for a year at school —some for two years. A rural industrial course, which gives training in carpentry and forge-work, and includes a very practical series of lectures and demonstrations in dairy production and manufacture, is claimed to provide for the requirements of local conditions, and the support accorded justified the claim. There is a State experiment farm, an up-to-date factory, and any number of suitable herds near at hand, and, as practically all the boys are from dairy-farms " the need for a farm atmosphere is not so evident." (b) Another school claims to have solved the problem in the following way : "We have selected a home farm, to whose owner we pay a small sum for the right of entry during the year. On this home farm, the school, as well as the Agricultural Department, is carrying out pasture experiments. Here, at suitable seasons of the year, the boys receive the necessary instruction in farm practice, and carry out those instructions. Such purely laborious and menial work as weeding, carrying loads, &c., are not included. In addition, the school has access to farm-lands totalling in area over 3,000 acres, belonging to recognized successful farmers, who have given the school permission at any time to visit them and receive whatever instruction they can from their farms. There is a very fine spirit of hearty co-operation, which is not a transitory affair, as each party to the bargain recognizes the worth and value of the other." (c) In schools where practically all the boys in the agricultural course come from home farms and surburban homes something could be done by a system of supervised " home projects," as evolved in America. One school has such work under way. In New Zealand the boys' and girls' club movement is organized through the Department of Agriculture and aided by the Education Department through the itinerant agricultural instructors. There are great possibilities in this system, but for its full development the post-primary school would require to release an agricultural instructor for at least half his teaching time and provide for transport. There is abundant evidence that the farming community as 'a whole has already realized and appreciated the importance of agricultural education and of the very many ways in which it is possible for them to co-operate with the teachers in making it a success. This is evident not only in their willingness to offer their farms for observation and experimental purposes in connection with the agricultural courses at technical high schools, but also by their practical encouragement of the agricultural-club movement, which, originating in Taranaki in 1920 in connection with the elementary and district high schools, has given new life to the study of agriculture throughout that district from which it is rapidly spreading to other parts of the Dominion. There is a danger here which Mr. Ridling has pointed out owing to the fact that this movement comes under two State Departments, those of Agriculture and Education. It is clear that unless the closest harmony and the fullest co-operation prevail between these two Departments not only the agricultural-club movement, but the whole effort to give an agricultural bias to the education system, will be in a large measure defeated. On the other hand, if such harmony and co-operation can be obtained —and the Committee is of opinion that it is the very obvious duty of the Government to take steps to ensure that this state of affairs is brought about—then there is every reason to entertain the highest hopes for the success of this policy. At the apex of our agricultural educational institutions stand the Massey and Canterbury Agricultural Colleges, to the usefulness of which the adoption of the above scheme will give a new impetus in view of the necessity for the training of as large a number of the teachers as possible for this special work. It is to these colleges, as well as to the Cawthron Institute, Nelson, and the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, that New Zealand must largely look for the development of that spirit of personal and painstaking research which is essential to the successful development of our primary industries in face of the competition of other nations in the world's markets, and which must, through the teachers, be inculcated in the minds of our children from the Primer classes through all stages of the education system. The Committee is of opinion that this is scarcely less important than that
Other proposals for obtaining practical work in agriculture,
Appreciation of new movement by farming community.
Inter-Departmental co-operation necessary.
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between the Agriculture and Education Departments, already referred to. The Committee therefore looks to the Government to marshal all its available forces towards making the new movement a success, as well as to take steps to ensure that land for settlement will be available for those who graduate through approved agricultural courses upon terms which will offer reasonable opportunity of earning a livelihood at least equal with that offering in other vocations. As a basis, therefore, for further action in the direction indicated above it recommends— (6) That, in view of the great importance to the Dominion of our primary industries, the curricula of all our schools must include adequate practical instruction in agriculture and allied subjects. SECTION 2.—ADMINISTRATION. CHAPTER IX. — UNIFICATION OF ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION AND CONTROL WITHIN EACH AREA UNIT OF EDUCATIONAL AUTHORITY. The Committee has given earnest consideration to the evolutionary changes which have taken place in the New Zealand education system within recent years, as a result of which the administrative organization and the administrative power no longer coincide. In some respects this development corresponds with that by which the de facto relationships of the British dominions and the United Kingdom are no longer in accord with the de lege constitutional position. This inconsistency was frankly faced by the Imperial Conference in 1926, and in order to discover a means of bringing the legal position into line with the factual a Select Committee was set up, the practical recommendations of which will come before the 1930 Conference for consideration. By a similar process the de lege provincial organization of the New Zealand education system has become wholly at variance with the de facto existence of final authority to-day in the hands of the Minister and Department of Education. In other words, the administrative power has followed the power of the purse ; and the problem which the Committee has had to consider has been the discovery of some new and satisfactory method of organization which will both fit the facts of national, and meet the legitimate desires of the people for local, control. It will be remembered that free, secular, and compulsory elementary education was provided by the Education Act, 1877, upon the extraordinary basis of the national Government undertaking all the expense, while the provincial Education Boards —-for they continued to be such in reality, if not in name —controlled all the administration and the expenditure. The separate establishment of the secondary schools under independent governing bodies endowed with large grants of public land, and, later, the establishment of technical high schools, also with separate governing bodies, increased the difficulty of the position, for the institution of free secondary and university education created in these fields the same anomalous situation as obtained in the primary sphere —viz., that of the national Government paying the piper while the local authorities called the tune. It is obvious that this state of affairs could not last for ever, and the wonder is that it continued for so long. With the growth of a sense of national unity the essentially national features of the Service have been transferred from local to national control, and the local educational authorities have been to a large extent denuded of their powers, though not of their administrative offices and staffs. The extent to which this transference of power to the hands of the Minister and the Department has proceeded is clearly set out in the following list of nationalized services contained in the evidence of the Director of Education, Mr. T. B. Strong, M.A., B.Sc. : — Extracts from the Evidence oe Mr. T. B. Strong, M.A., B.Sc., Director op Education. List of Nationalized Services. (1) The appointment of teachers must be in accordance with the national grading and classification lists. (2) Schools must be staffed and salaries paid in accordance with a national scale. (3) There are no longer district scholarships, but National Scholarships. (4) Allowances to School Committees are now on a national scale. (5) The Boards have no Inspectors of Schools. The Inspectorate has been nationalized. (6) Grants for sites and buildings have been nationalized. Each application is dealt with on its merits irrespective of district.
Recommendation
Evolutionary changes in education system,
Nationalization of services.
Evidence of Director of Education.
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As a concession to provincial sentiment, these important transferences have not been accompanied by any changes in the original administrative system, which is still maintained as if the whole control of the Service were as local as it was during the first twenty years of its history. The total cost of educational administration has in consequence increased inordinately by reason of the fact that the increase in the staff of the Central Department necessitated by the above transferences has not been accompanied by any corresponding reduction in those of the Boards. That this duplication has now reached a point where the administrative cost of the New Zealand education system is practically twice as much per school pupil as that of the neighbouring States of Victoria and New South Wales the subjoined comparative figures, also furnished by Mr. Strong, conclusively prove. It is clear that, on the whole, there is no marked disparity either way between the Education Services of the Australian States and our own, or between the salaries paid to the teachers on either side of the Tasman Sea. It therefore becomes at once manifest that in order to preserve the appearance of local control New Zealand is really paying two educational administrators for every one employed in Victoria and New South Wales. It will be observed that in the case of the New Zealand Native schools, the administration of which is completely centralized, the administrative cost is appreciably lower than that of any of the Australian States referred to.
Local system of administration unchanged.
Comparative Cost of Educational Administration in Australia and New Zealand.
Comparative cost of educational administration in Australia and New Zealand.
As a remedy for this state of affairs, Mr. Strong proposed the abolition of all existing Boards, post-primary as well as primary, and the reorganization of the Service upon the Australian model—that is, a completely centralized Department in direct contact with schools organized under the control of local School Committees, the suggested functions of which did not appear to the Committee to increase in any material way the local powers or authority of these bodies. To this proposal the Committee is strongly opposed, being convinced that the public of New Zealand would rather bear the burden of the extra cost of the present system than change it for one of bureaucratic control, however much cheaper the latter may be. The Committee therefore set out to explore every possible avenue that might offer a prospect of reducing the admittedly excessive administrative cost of the system, without sacrificing the principle of local interest and authority, upon which it sets a very high value. It was likewise unable to accept a proposal made by Mr. J. Wallace, Chairman of the Otago Education Board, that there should be five Education Boards with enlarged powers, two in the South Island and three in the North Island, each controlling all educational institutions within its territory, excluding the University colleges, but including the teachers' training colleges ; and that the grading system should be abolished and the power of appointment of teachers given back to these Boards. The Committee is agreed that the present grading system should be abolished, but not that the power of appointment should be restored to provincial Boards. It believes that such a system would result in the establishment of five bureaucracies instead of one, and that it would bring about a regression to some of the worst features of the past. It is convinced that the present Education Districts of Auckland and Canterbury are too large as it is, and is anxious to provide more local control than is possible in such huge areas. In other words, it would prefer to see these large districts subdivided rather than have the smaller districts amalgamated to form larger ones.
Complete centralization of administration not approved.
Schools. Pupils. Admiration. Cost per Pupil. £ s. d. New South Wales .. .. .. 3,472 328,966 87,720 5 4 Victoria .. .. .. .. 2,646 232,595 46,766 4 0 Queensland.. .. .. .. 1,695 163,062 33,286 4 1 New Zealand .. .. ..I 2,799 252,517 117,826 9 2 New Zealand Native schools (managed by j 134 6,671 1,147 3 6 Department) 1 _J | |
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In his first address delivered as Minister of Education to the New Zealand Technical-school Teachers' Association Conference, and reported in the Wellington Evening Post of the 15th May, 1929, the Hon. Harry Atmore suggested unification of the control of education in each education district and unification of the teachers' organizations as two great reforms which he wished to see introduced into our education system. Extract from Address of the Minister of Education, the Hon. Harry Atmore. He could not see the slightest reason why they should have sectional teachers' organizations. They did not help them to take the broad view of the education of the girl or boy in school, that it was a continuous process. It seemed to him that in their sectional organizations they only saw the girls or boys as they passed the window represented by their own particular form of education. What was wanted was unification of the educational system, unification of the teachers' organizations in conformity with it, and unification of the control of education by the local Boards. Why should not one Board control the whole of the education in each of the big educational districts ? He wanted to get rid of the present sectionalism, and to see the education of the girls and boys as one continuous process from start to finish. He believed that these great reforms would result in considerable benefit to the country and in progress on the lines they all wished to see. As a member of this Committee the Minister made a point of questioning a large number of the witnesses with respect to these proposals, which he put forward in alternative form, asking for expression of opinion upon (a) unification of post-primary Boards only within each existing education district, the primary Boards to remain as before ; (b) complete unification of control within each area unit of educational administration. In cases where witnesses appeared in an official capacity they were asked to give the Committee the benefit of their personal convictions as well as the official opinions of the bodies and institutions which they represented. The Committee believes that it is, possibly, in a better position to arrive at a conclusion upon this important subject than any Educational Committee or Commission which has hitherto discussed the question of educational reorganization in New Zealand. It desires also at this stage again to emphasize the unanimity of its report. In order the more closely to consider the merits and demerits of the two 'schemes, the Committee has worked them out in detail, as shown below. It will be observed that Scheme "A" embodies the former, and Scheme " B " the latter, of the above alternative suggestions. Under Scheme "A" the total number of ocal educational authorities would be reduced from fifty-four to forty-three ; under Scheme " B," as here presented, from fifty-four to eighteen. Reference to the map which accompanies the schemes will show the boundaries of the nine existing Primary Education Board Districts, and the eighteen cities and towns which it is proposed should be the administrative centres of the new education districts.
Unification ot local control proposed by the Hon. the Minister of Education.
Alternative proposals considered.
Scheme "A." Providing for the Continuance of Divided Control (Unification of Post-primary Boards only).
Unification of post-primary Boards only.
I Number of Schools I 1 Number of separate' I Total Number of 1 Prhnarv R™„l giving Post - pnmary Post-primary Boards Post-nrimarv Schools separate Post-primary . . ,- . , ! Education under each within Primary- J, , Schools within each s- Board (District High education Districts. 0011 ot , 111 Cclu 1 i Primary-education Schools). centre. District. f Whangarei .. 1 "] I Auckland (2) C I Thfi inns 1 ' Auckland .. 23 ' " 1 \ 12 Hamilton (2) 2 Rotorua .. .. 1 j f Wellington (2) 5 j Petone .. .. 1 Wellington .. 7 Hutt Valley . . 1 10 | Wairarapa .. 2 I Blenheim . . 1 f \ New Plymouth .. i 2 * Taranaki . . 3 •{ Hawera . . . . 1 4 (J Stratford.. .. 1 ij
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Scheme "A" —continued. Providing for the Continuance of Divided Control (Unification of Post-primary Boards only) —contd.
Number of Boards of each, type —Primary, 9 ; post-primary, 45 : total, 54. Total number of post-primary schools under the respective systems of administration — Under Primary Boards, 79 ; under Post-primary Boards, 62 : total, 141. Scheme "B." Providing for the Complete Unification of Local Control within each Education District. Note. —Of the present nine primary-education Board districts three to remain unchanged. Within these areas complete unification of existing local educational authorities to be effected. The remaining education districts to be subdivided in order to provide effective local control, with complete unification of control within each area. Situated at each of the proposed administrative centres there is a fully-established senior high school. Total number of Boards, 18.
Complete unification of local control.
Number of Schools N" l f t Total Number of Primary Board givhlg P ° st -P rimar y Post-primary Boards p ° ? separate Post-primary tv + • + Education under each within Primary- ? ,, , Schools within each Districts. Board (r)istr . ct H . gh education Distl .f ct . controlled in each Prim ary.education Schools). centre. District. . f Wanganui (2) 2 Wanganui .. 5 -=j Palmerston North 2 5 [_ Feilding .. .. 1 J f Napier (2) .. 3 ~"| Hawke'sBay .. 6 <j Hastings .. 1 I 6 [ Dannevirke .. 1 J ■NT i f Nelson (2) 3 . Nelson - 6 \ Westport .. 1 / 4 f Christchurch (2) .. 4 "j | Rangiora.. .. 1 n , , 1 , } Ashburton (2) 2 ! ,. Canterbury .. 15 1 Timaru (2) .. 2 \ 11 J Waimate .. 1 Greyinouth .. 1 f Dunedin (2) .. ! 3 1 Otago .. 11 <J Oamaru .. .. 2 1> 6 Balclutha .. 1 j Southland .. 3 <f (2) "| f j} 4
Existing Primary-education Proposed New Unified Education Administrative Centres of proposed Districts. Districts. New Education Districts. • __ ; __ I - ; Auckland .. .. .. North. Auckland .. .. Whangarei. Auckland Urban .. .. Auckland. Waikato. .. .. .. Hamilton. Wellington .. .. .. Wellington Urban .. .. Wellington. Wairarapa . . Masterton. Marlborough .. .. Blenheim. Taranaki .. .. .. Taranaki . . .. .. New Plymouth. Wanganui .. . . . . Manawhenua . . . . Palmerston North. Wanganui . . . . .. Wanganui. Hawke's Bay .. .. East Coast . . .. . . Gisborne. Hawke's Bay .. . . Napier. Nelson .. . . .. Nelson . . .. .. Nelson. Canterbury .. .. .. North Canterbury . . .. Christchurch. South Canterbury .. .. Timaru. West Coast .. .. Greymouth. Otago .. .. .. North Otago . . .. Oamaru. South Otago .. . . Dunedin. Southland .. .. .. Southland .. .. . . Invercargill.
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Map of NEW ZEALAND.
In general, the alignment of opinion amongst the sectional interests represented by the witnesses examined is capable of fairly clear statement. The New Zealand Educational Institute, representing the primary school teachers, strongly favours the principle of complete unification of control within each determined area of educational administration, and in this attitude it is clear that the separately organized Headmasters' Association and the New Zealand Women Teachers' Association concurs. Speaking to the last of the three principles of
Opinions of primary school teachers.
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reorganization adopted by the Institute—unity, continuity, and co-ordination —• Mr. J. G. Poison, M.A., as president, expressed the opinion of its members, as follows : — Extract from the Evidence op Mr. J. G. Polson, M.A., President op the New Zealand Educational Institute. To give effect to the principles of unity of progress and continuity of curriculum, there must be a breaking-down of the barriers that separate the so-called primary schools from the so-called technical and secondary schools. In each district, instead of three governing bodies dealing with only a part of the work, there should be a single authority. In real fact there is only one work to do, and one body could do it much better than three. It is inherent in the nature of the work to be done that it is only one body that can do it to advantage, and not three. Given a single controlling authority in any area, it would be possible so to arrange the work that the facilities available could be used to the best advantage of the pupils. A boy of mechanical tendency need not then be compelled to pass his time in the uncongenial atmosphere of the grammar school, nor would a girl with a leaning towards science be confined to the commercial school. The parallel course under co-ordinated control would give opportunity for changing from course to course as abilities and temperament and desires begin to declare themselves. A single authority would be able to take a comprehensive survey of the whole area under its control, and arrive at the best means of using the facilities available and estimate the need for development in one direction or another. It is not a matter of calling pupils " primary pupils " till they are eleven years old and then calling them something else, though some distinguishing term is certainly necessary : it is a matter of providing for all pupils such opportunities of finding and developing their real powers, their natural endowment of intellectual, moral, and social qualities, as will enable them to make the best of themselves for the community, and not, as is so often the case under existing conditions, a very poor second-best. Such a scheme means, of course, the welding into a single body of the three existing forms of governing bodies. No apology need be made for that. The old tripartite system has had its day and done its work. It is not suited for, and it is not capable of doing, the work that has to be done in the administration of a system that will be worthy of the name of an education system which has to survey the whole field and direct the work within it. Such a body must have definite responsibilities and corresponding powers. Modern education makes an ever-increasing appeal to the hearts and minds of the people, and the system that is to recognize adequately that fact must give scope for and opportunity to all the thoughts and feelings and endeavours that are summed up in the term " local interest." Local knowledge, local enthusiasm, local pride, offer a wealth of support and assistance that no wisely designed system should neglect. This principle was also supported by the Wellington Federation of Educational Associations in a statement submitted by its president, Mr. N. A. Ingram. Amongst the primary Education Boards there was no clear consensus of opinion, but, in general, while they appeared to be not averse to the amalgamation of the post-primary Boards with their own, they certainly made no concerted effort to advocate it. The Technical School Teachers' Association officially supported a scheme devised and worked out in some detail by Messrs. L. J. Wild, M.A., B.Sc., president of the Association, and Mr. C. B. McClure, M.A., president of the Feilding branch. This provided for unified control within some twenty-two education areas, based upon the county organization and a system of local rating ; but as the investigation proceeded it became clear that it was not supported by many of the leading technical high schools Principals. There was, on the other hand, considerable indication that Mr. W. G. Aldridge, M.A., Principal of the King Edward Technical College, Dunedin, voiced the feeling of those actively interested in technical education, both Board members and Principals, when he expressed the opinion that the existing organic relationship between the technical schools and the Department which is admittedly working efficiently, should not be disturbed. Extract prom the Evidence op Mr. W. G. Aldridge, M.A., Principal, King Edward Technical College, Dunedin. Speaking 011 behalf of technical schools, I should say that one of the chief reasons why they have shown remarkable progress in the last fifteen years has been that officers of the Education Department have interested themselves in the development of these schools in advance of public opinion. Ido not think that technical education would have much progress if their control had been wholly in the hands of a local body responsible for all the education of a district. I sincerely trust that, whatever changes in control may be suggested, there may be yet an official directly responsible to the Department of Education, preferably as Chairman of any local Board that may be constituted. The Secondary School Boards and Principals were almost unanimous in opposing the amalgamation of the secondary Boards with the primary. They appeared, however, to recognize that some form of reorganization involving the reduction of the number of local-governing bodies was inevitable, and in view of the successful
Opinions of technical school teachers.
Evidence of Director, Dunedin Technical College.
Opinions of secondary school teachers.
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amalgamation of the High and Technical High School Boards at New Plymouth and Masterton under the optional clauses of the Education Amendment Act, 1924, and the equally successful control of the Palmerston North High and Technical High Schools by a single Board, seemed willing to accept those precedents as offering a solution of the problem. In other words, they urged that the administration of secondary education should be kept separate from that of primary education, and that it should be left entirely in the hands of amalgamated but still localized city and town post-primary school Boards. They also asked that all city and town intermediate schools should be attached to the existing separate post-primary schools as junior departments, and, consequently, that to this extent the administration of intermediate education should be entrusted to the post-primary Boards. Dr. James Hight, M.A., Litt.L)., Rector of Canterbury College, however, which controls the Christchurch Boys' and Girls' High Schools, definitely, declared in favour of the principle of making the area rather than the grade of education the unit for administrative purposes. Extract from the Evidence op Dr. James Hight, M.A., Litt.D., Rector of Canterbury College. Administration : Central and Local or Regional.—l speak here also as historian and political scientist in recording the strongly-held opinion that the central authority in education should be united in control and administration with the local, the latter sharing largely in powers and responsibility. Centralized direction or supervision is an absolute necessity, but the development of a real popular interest in education, the possibility of rich and varied experimentation, the feeling of communal responsibility and civic pride are fostered where there is a generous measure of regionalism. The extraordinary and widespread interest felt in education problems in England and the more progressive States of America to-day is stimulated in no mean degree by the system which leaves a good deal to the local authorities and frees the central authority for the necessary and higher function of gathering, and diffusing the results of the latest educational thought, stimulating research, conducting experiments, as well as dealing with the section of the administrative field that is undeniably its own. The trend in England of recent years has been to take the area rather than the grade of education as the unit of administration. At this stage the Committee desires to place on record its high appreciation of the valuable work done by the separate secondary and Technical High School Boards in the development of post-primary education in New Zealand. This has entailed an immense amount of public-spirited service the value of which cannot be overestimated. The splendid grammar schools, high schools, technical high schools, and colleges in which the young people of New Zealand enjoy the inestimable advantage of free secondary education to - day could never have been brought to such a pitch of efficiency had it not been for the unselfish devotion of the members of the post-primary school Boards in the cities and towns concerned, and the Committee trusts that, if the proposals made in this report are given effect, these ladies and gentlemen will continue to give their services upon the special School Councils that will be set up to administer the local affairs, and maintain and foster the traditions, of their respective schools. The Committee's deep sense of the country's obligation to the post-primary Boards expressed above caused it to examine most sympathetically the practicability of Scheme " A " as an administrative basis for the reorganization of the education system in accordance with the principles laid down in Section I of this report. The first problem that arose was that of the control of the intermediate stage of education. Upon this point, after the most careful consideration, and for the reasons set out below, the Committee decided that if the local control of education was to be divided between separate primary and post-primary Boards the control of the intermediate stage should be entrusted to the primary-education Boards wherever practicable. It was at once clear that the district high schools could not be withdrawn from the control of the primary Boards. This meant thatscattered over the Dominion there would be seventy-nine schools of the Matamata type, giving post-primary education, yet under primary Board control. Also, in view of the close organic association of the Kowhai Junior High School with its contributory schools the Committee felt that it would be most unwise t6 remove that school from its present control. It follows that all separate schools of the Kowhai type must remain, in association with their contributory schools, under the primary Boards.
Evidence of Rector of Canterbury College.
Appreciation of post-primary Boards.
Intermediate education to be under control of District Education Boards.
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Financial aspect considered.
These decisions were arrived at upon educational grounds purely. They were reinforced by a consideration of the financial aspect of the question. Apart from the much greater capital cost of the usual secondary-school buildings and equipment as compared with those provided in the primary stage, the current cost of education in the two branches is, approximately, in the primary schools £13 and in the post-primary schools £26 per annum. It was clear from the evidence of Mr. Rudman, Principal of the Kowhai School (printed in an earlier chapter of this report), that that school is at present being conducted at an annual rate of expenditure approximately equal to that of the district high schools. In view, therefore, of the fact that the change-over to compulsory intermediate education for all children at 11 plus will involve the whole of Standards Y and VI, or 25 per cent, of the present primary-school enrolment, the Committee decided that on the ground of expenditure alone, if on no other, the control of this stage of education should be left, as far as practicable, with the primary Boards. In the case of schools of the Rotorua type, however, assuming that the two stages are still to be separately controlled, it is clearly impossible to do this, and the Committee felt that in such schools the intermediate stage must be left under the control of the post-primary Boards. Thus it became apparent that absolute divided control was not practicable, and that, instead of the primary and the post-primary Boards having definite and respective spheres, the vitally important period of compulsory postprimary education (11 plus to 15 years) would be split up between them. This is clearly seen in the above setting-out of Scheme " A," under which, for example, within the Auckland primary-education district twenty-three schools giving post-primary education would be controlled by the primary Board, and twelve by eight separately organized post-primary Boards. Under such an organization the Committee felt that innumerable difficulties and anomalies which it is now endeavouring to remove from the education system would still persist. Problems relating to staffing, salaries, appointment of teachers, inspection, capitation, and many others appeared to be much easier of solution under a system of unified than of divided control. With such a system of divided control the Committee thought that the articulation of the two stages of education, as well as the continual adjustment of difficulties arising from the joint occupancy of the 11 plus to 15 period, would devolve upon the central Department, and this necessity it was anxious to obviate. Still another important factor contributed to the decision on this matter. It is the definite desire of the Committee to develop rather than to diminish the authority of the local Boards within their appropriate sphere. The Committee felt that there is a very real danger in having our education districts too large. Where, as is the case with the Auckland Education Board, the local authority has control of approximately one-third of the school population of the Dominion, and passes through its books one-third of the annual vote for elementary education, the Committee felt that it was impossible to maintain that genuine local control exists. A school, for instance, away in the Bay of Plenty district, in North Auckland, or in the south of the Waikato, might almost as well deal direct with Wellington as with Auckland. This of affairs seems merely to" be setting up a department within a department, and duplicating cost without conferring corresponding advantages in respect of real local control. The Committee, therefore, felt that much of the objection to complete unification would be met by the subdivision of the Auckland and Canterbury Boards as provided under Scheme " B." In thus recommending the complete reorganization of the Board system the Committee feels that it should also place on record its high appreciation of the services rendered to education in New Zealand by the existing District Education Boards. These have done invaluable work throughout their long history; their members have laid the Dominion under a heavy obligation for their publicspirited and unselfish labours ; and the Committee hopes that many of them will continue to give the public the benefit of their long experience upon the new Boards now proposed to be set up. Finally, upon the broad issue of effecting as great a reduction in the number of education authorities, and, presumably, in the administrative cost of the system in consequence, as is reasonably possible, the Committee felt that Scheme " B," under which the number of Boards is reduced to eighteem, was to be preferred to
Difficulties arising from overlapping.
Genuine local control not possible in large areas.
Appreciation of District Education Boards.
Partial unification insufficient.
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Scheme " A," which provides for forty-three. It can see very little prospect of effecting much reduction in the administration under Scheme " A," in that it contemplates the continuance of the existing nine primary Boards' offices as at present. There will not be much saving by the mere unification of the post-primary Boards in the eleven centres where dual control now exists. On the other hand, Scheme " B," offers an opportunity to readjust the whole relationship of central, and local or regional, administration upon the broad principles so clearly enunciated by Dr. Bight. By the overt transference to the central Department of those branches of the administration in respect of which it is essential that the education system must be organized upon a national basis, and by transferring to the Boards the freer control of those matters which can better be dealt with locally, it is believed that not only will the cause of friction be removed, but that a considerable reduction may be effected in the total administrative cost of the system. Far reaching recommendations for such a readjxistment are made in the next succeeding chapter of this report, mainly upon the basis adopted by the Imperial Conference Committee in respect of its not dissimilar problem, that of bringing the de lege position into line with the de facto condition of affairs. As an essentia] part of this scheme the Committee desires to make two special recommendations. The first provides for the continuance of the existing postprimary Boards as School Councils for their respective schools, with this exception, that where a single Board at present lias control of more than one school a separate council will be set up for each school. It is felt that, following the practice at present obtaining in the technical high schools, the Principal or Director should be ex officio Secretary of the School Council. It is clear that this practice is both economical and efficient in that it provides in the person of the Principal a direct link between the controlling body and the school, and obviates the necessity for the intervention of any intermediary, and consequently of cause for delay and misunderstanding. In the larger schools it is expected that, as at present, sufficient clerical assistance will be provided to relieve the Principal of purely mechanical work and enable him to devote his full energies to the organization and super-' intendence of his school. As stated above, the Committee hopes that those who have rendered such signal service to the post-primary schools on the Boards will continue to serve in the same way, and that they will find in the important sphere of activity entrusted to them every opportunity of maintaining the characteristic individuality and the best traditions of the New Zealand secondary and technical high schools. The recommendations made in the next chapter for the provision of adequate allowances to School Committees and generous subsidies on moneys raised locally will, it is confidently anticipated, contribute materially to this end. The second recommendation relates to the creation of a unified Inspectorate. The Committee felt that the present division of the Inspectorate into three separate branches corresponding with the three historic departments of the education system should be abolished. It is convinced that, as with the local administration, so with the Inspectorate, it is better to have a completely unified Inspectorate than merely to unite the secondary and technical branches, and not include the primary. Under the new schedule of organization it is proposed that there should be an inspectorial corps of specialist Inspectors attached to each education district, and that they should inspect all the schools and all stages of education. In addition to being a specialist in some particular branch of education, each Inspector will, it is assumed, be a teacher of wide general training and experience. The Committee was impressed by the representations made on behalf of the New Zealand Women Teachers' Association by its president, Miss Elsie Andrews, with reference to the appointment of women Inspectors, and recommends that each inspectorial corps should include a woman Inspector. It is but fair, however, to state that before these representations were made the Minister of Education, the Hon. Harry Atmore, had already given instructions that two women Inspectors should be appointed. In the same way each area will have attached to its staff specialist instructors in agriculture and physical training, and a vocational guidance officer, besides which it is anticipated that the School Medical and Dental Services and the work of the Child Welfare Branch will be reorganized upon the basis of the new education districts.
Secondary School Boards to be continued as School Councils.
Unification of Inspectorate recommended.
Women Inspectors to be appointed.
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District Superintendent to be Secretary of Education Board.
With regard to the Board's clerical staffs, it is proposed that, again following the e clearly efficient practice obtaining in the technical high schools, the Senior Inspector or District Superintendent of Education, as it is suggested he should be called, should be ex officio Secretary and Treasurer of the Board, and that he should be assisted by such clerical staff as may be necessary to relieve him of the mechanical part of the work and leave him free to co-ordinate and superintend the whole educational organization of his district. It is felt, moreover, that this combination of the offices of Secretary and Senior Inspector will remove the possibility of friction between the Department and the Boards, in that the Superintendent will be a persona] connecting-link between them. With respect to office accommodation it is pointed out that in the case of the nine largest Boards the present offices will be available, while there will be a saving by the elimination of the separate post-primary Board offices. For the rest, it is suggested that adequate accommodation can be made available at one of the schools situated in the administrative centre of the district, preferably at the senior high school. By these means it is confidently expected that the change-over from the existing fifty-seven to the proposed new eighteen Boards, together with the readjustment of functions recommended in the next chapter, will enable substantia] economies to be effected in the total administrative cost of the system. The Committee did not overlook the question of the constitution of the new Boards, which was raised by several witnesses. This, in its opinion, is a matter of detail upon which it is not prepared to make any recommendation ; but as a basis for discussion it is prepared to suggest that each Board should consist of five classes of members—viz., representatives elected by— (a) Popular vote ; (b) Local governing bodies ; (c) School Committees and Councils ; (d) The teachers ; and (e) Representatives of Agricultural and Pastoral Associations, and Employers' and Employees' Associations, recommended by those bodies for appointment by the Governor-General in Council. The Committee therefore submits the following resolution : — (7) That this Committee is of the opinion that unification of control of the existing primary, secondary, and technical education in New Zealand is desirable. The Committee further recommends— (8) That the existing post-primary school Boards be continued as School Councils for their respective schools, except that where a single Board has controlled more than one school a separate School Council shall be set up for each sehool. (9) That the present divisions of the Inspectorate be abolished, and a single Inspectorate be organized consisting of specialist Inspectors, the inspectorial staff within each Board district to inspect all grades and types of schools within the District, and to include one woman Inspector. CHAPTER X.—READJUSTMENT OF FUNCTIONS OF CENTRAL AND LOCAL EDUCATIONAL AUTHORITIES. In any federal form of government means must be provided by which interests essentially national are protected from the possibility of injury due to misdirected or inadequate activity on the part of provincial authorities. In the Commonwealth of Australia the method adopted is to select and prescribe the spheres of activity in which the national interests are considered to be paramount, and leave the rest to the independent and sovereign authority of the States. In the Dominion of Canada national interests are protected by the application of the doctrine of repugnance, in accordance with which the field of both Dominion and provincial authority is theoretically unlimited, but in the event of overlapping of function, to the extent
Office accommodation for new Boards to be provided in school buildings.
Constitution of District Education Boards.
Recommendations.
Federal Form of Government.
49
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that provincial measures are repugnant to or conflict witli those of the Dominion Government, they are ipso facto null and void. In the Union of South Africa the provincial Legislatures are still more subordinate to the authority of the national Legislature. It is, in fact, a union, and not a federation at all. The New Zealand svstem of educational organization was origin all v organized o o «/ O as a federal one, and the Committee desires to see it continue and develop as such. There has been in the past a distinct tendency for it to approximate, to the model provided by the South African Union, and for the central Department to assume a paramountry over the local Boards in all matters. The Committee believes that the proposals made in this report will have the effect of arresting that development, and of restoring to the local authorities within appropriate and responsible spheres genuine freedom to manage their own affairs. It is in reality essentially in the national interests that the devolution of administration is organized, because there are many matters which, in those very interests, can better be controlled by the local than by the central authority ; but care must be taken to ensure that in local as well as central administration a broad national and not a narrow sectional outlook will inform the whole system. This important point was clearly brought out by the Minister of Education, the Hon. Harry Atmore, in his examination of the Technical-school Teachers' Association's proposals for local rating for education : — Extract from Examination with reference to Proposals made on behalf of the New Zealand Technical-school Teachers' Association by Mr. C. B. McClure, M.A., President of the Feilding Branch. The Hon. Mr. Atmore : With regard to your suggestion that authority should be given to impose local taxation, are you aware that in America, where the State raises a good deal of money, there are very different standards of education in the various States ? Witness : I understand that is so. The Hon. Mr. Atmore : One State may have a proper appreciation of the value of education, while another may not have such appreciation : do you not think that a national system is likely to produce a higher average standard of education than the local area system ? I know the State could insist on a certain standard being reached, but it would be difficult for the State to insist on that when the question of local expenditure had to be taken into account. There would be no impediment to certain areas —say, a wealthy district —subscribing liberally and rating themselves higher, and giving a higher standard than would be possible in the poorer areas ? Witness : There is a paragraph in Mr. Wild's notes on post-primary education in which we have given consideration to that matter, where it is suggested that finance should be derived from (a) revenue from endowments ; (b) annual Government grants on a capitation basis ; (c) subsidies of 10s. in the pound on moneys raised by district taxation (power to levy taxes, limited in rate, to be given to district councils by Parliament) ; (d) subsidies of £1 for £1 without question on voluntary donations, limited in amount in any one year ; and (e) grants from a State Equalization Fund. The latter grants would, of course, go to those districts which might be classed as the poorer districts. The Hon. Mr. Atmore : Supposing a district was not necessarily poor, but did not wish to tax itself ? Witness : There is certainly an obvious difficulty there, but I think it is a question which might safely be left to the district, which would not want to lag behind. The parents of one district would not like, to see the children of the parents of another district receive a better education than their own simply because they refused to tax themselves. Those parents would probably send their children on to the next district. The Hon. Mr. Atmore : If they sent their children on to the next district, would not that necessitate further taxation in that district ? Witness : If there was much of that it would, of course ; but I only suggested it to indicate that, if such a thing did happen, their own local Board would wake up to the necessity of increased taxation. The Hon. Mr. Atmore : I think there are tremendous difficulties in the way of local taxation for education, and I think the bulk of the people of New Zealand will insist on a national system. It became the duty, therefore, of the Committee to inquire exactly what features of the New Zealand education system should be regarded as essential to its national character, and, consequently, the special concern of the national rather than the local authority. In the opinion of the Committee these may be summarized as follows : — (1) Provision for the general maintenance of the system out of public funds altogether irrespective of local contributions : (2) Provision of adequate school sites, buildings, and equipment upon an equal basis for all districts : (3) Payment of teachers : (4) Maintenance of Teachers' Superannuation Fund upon a contributory
Value of local administration
Difficulties of local rating scheme.
Functions oi national Department.
basis. 4—l. Ba.
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(5) Provision of subsidies from public funds upon voluntary local contributions raised for educational purposes, with due safeguards to protect the national interests : (6) Control of Native schools : (7) Control of Child Welfare Branch : (8) Prescription of syllabus of instruction : (9) Issue of school certificates : (10) Inspection of schools : (11) Classification of teachers : (12) Appointment of teachers. These are the spheres of activity, then, which the Committee believed should be entrusted to the central or national education authority. Of the above enumeration, items (6) and (7) relate to branches of the education system which have never been other than under the control of the Education Department, and which the Committee considers should, for the present at least, so remain. It is, however, hoped that when the reorganization of administration recommended in the preceding chapter is carried into effect it will be found possible to arrange for an increasing measure of co-ordination and co-operation with the district administration, at least in respect of medical and dental inspection and treatment, physical training, vocational guidance, and other special services. Of the remainder, the last five may be classified broadly as predominantly professional and the first five as predominantly administrative in character. Upon general principles, the Committee is of opinion that the professional group should be controlled by the central Department. These are national matters, in respect of which there should be equality of treatment throughout the Dominion. The syllabus of instruction in the primary schools has always been the special charge of the Department. Under the new organization it will be necessary for it to undertake the similar organization of the higher stages so as to ensure a wisely-planned continuity of educational development for every pupil from infancy to employment. The remaining items —school certificates, inspection of schools, classification and appointment of teachers, and also item No. 4, Teachers' Superannuation Fund—are subjects of recommendations in other sections of the report, and therefore need not be discussed here. With regard to the appointment of teachers, however, it may not be out of place at this stage to state that the Committee's recommendations for the complete nationalization of the appointments system merely take away, as far as the primary-education Boards are concerned at least, the shadow of a power the substance of which has long since been lost. In other words, it is making the de lege position fit the de facto one, for since the nationalization of the Inspectorate and the employment of the grading system as the basis of appointments the real appointing power has been the Inspectorate, and the Committee is satisfied that the change from the old system of local patronage to one organized on a, national basis has been abundantly justified. By the elimination of the now almost meaningless formalities associated with the appointment of teachers the Committee is convinced that there will be much less circumlocution and delay, and much less clerical work entailed in the filling of vacancies, and a corresponding increase in efficiency and economy. The remaining items relate to financial matters which throughout the history of the system have been a never-ending source of friction between the Boards and the Department. The Committee is perfectly satisfied that successive Ministers and Directors of Education have not deliberately sought to centralize power for its own sake. The steps taken in that direction have been forced upon them by the necessity of meeting national needs and overcoming deadlocks and difficulties otherwise insurmountable. When the Legislature in 1877 sought to separate the administrative power from the power of the purse it was attempting the impossible. There is a law of gravitation in government by which inexorably the former must follow the latter, and the majority of the administrative difficulties and the present excessive cost of our education system can be traced to that initial error. The Committee cannot blame the local authorities for strenuously resisting the curtailment of their powers. It would have been strange had they done otherwise. But the fact remains that as a result of these conditions there exist to-day friction where there should be harmony, overlapping where there should be co-operation, and waste where there should be economy. That this is wholly due to the retention of a system which has long outgrown its usefulness is clearly shown by the following extracts from the evidence of the Director of Education, Mr. T. B. Strong, M.A., B.Sc. : —
Special services,
Administration of professional side to be nationalized.
Difficulties of present system of financial administration.
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Extracts prom the Evidence of the Director of Education, Mr. T. B. Strong, M.A., B.Sc. The system of educational administration in New Zealand is probably the most unique, as it is also the most expensive, in the British Empire. It is also the most unbusinesslike. Until the Education Act of 1914 was passed, a measure which did more than anything else to nationalize our education system, Education Boards were given a lump sum to do what they liked with in the payment of teachers, the purchase of sites and the erection of buildings, the establishment of scholarships, the training of teachers, &c. The evil results of this system were seen in the varying salary scales, patronage in the appointment of teachers, the provision in many cases of inadequate school-sites, the placing of schools too closely together, the building of schools that in architecture were thoroughly unsuitable, entire neglect in most districts of the training of teachers. The 1914 Act nationalized the teachers' salary scales, nationalized the appointment of teachers, nationalized the provision of sites and buildings, and founded the national scholarship system. There is now no definite amount allotted to each district for the provision of new sites and buildings. Each district receives according to its needs. The only definite amount each Board receives for buildings is that paid for maintenance, the sum being based on the existing floor-space in the district. So, too, Boards of Governors of secondary schools once functioned as educational units almost altogether independent of any unifying control. They paid their teachers according to widely different salary scales, they staffed their schools as they pleased, and charged what fees they liked. The secondary schools were, in fact, out of the stream of national education. The Education Act, dealing as it even now does mainly with primary schools, shows how apart from the main stream secondary schools once were. The education system has evolved from the chaotic conditions of the past, but it is not surprising that Education Boards and secondary-school Boards still long for the freedom they had in the past to spend money as they pleased. They have resisted, and will resist, all attempts to nationalize the system. This, then, is the legacy of the past: an ever-insistent demand on the part of the local authorities to have more control over expenditure of money that comes from the national purse. It is inevitable that under the present system, whereby every Board is clamouring for additional money to spend, there will grow up a wasteful system of administration. Every Education Board and every secondary-school Board must have a set of officials, several of whom, judged by the standards of the Civil Service, are paid salaries out of all proportion to their responsibilities. All example of overlapping is furnished by the system of paying salaries. Each Board maintains a staff of clerks to pay salaries which under our national system must be paid in accordance with a uniform scale set out in regulations. But, in order to prevent waste due to inaccuracies and overpayments not in accordance with the regulations, the Department must itself have a staff of clerks to check the Boards' payments. In every State in Australia no difficulty is found in paying every teacher directly from headquarters, and the same could be done in New Zealand, thus saving the expense of duplicating staffs. A further instance of overlapping is furnished by the system in vogue in connection with school buildings. Each Education Board has its own Architect and workmen, while the Department's Architect has either to draw the plans himself or scrutinize those furnished by the Boards' staffs. Some of the buildings are erected by the Boards' workmen, others by contract, and still others by the Public Works Department. School buildings are public buildings, and the Public Works Department has branch offices in every place where there is an Education Office, and in other places as well. How unnecessary is this duplication when the Public Works Department could do the whole work itself ! The payment of subsidies on sums of money raised by School Committees is another example of wasteful overlapping. It is obvious that subsidies must be on a uniform basis throughout the Dominion, and consequently the Department must itself decide the amount of subsidy to be recommended to the Minister. At present all correspondence has to pass through Education Board channels, and clerks are employed unnecessarily duplicating correspondence. There is no good reason why School Committees should not send their applications for subsidies direct to the Department. Again, although the Junior and Senior National Scholarships are awarded by the Department, all correspondence with successful candidates must pass through the Education Board, with further duplication of correspondence. It is safe to say that these local bodies maintain a small army of clerks dealing with matters that must in a national system of education be decided by the Department. No business firm would tolerate such a cumbrous and roundabout method of organizing its operations. Even after long years of experience with the present absurd method of control, the senior officers of the Department still frequently find themselves committing the error of taking direct action instead of following the recognized indirect and roundabout method of procedure. No less a sum than £61,000 is paid by Education Boards in administration, and secondary-school Boards spend £8,882. I have no hesitation in asserting that most of this huge sum is due to unnecessary and entirely unjustifiable overlapping of functions between the Boards and the Department. After close investigation of the whole position and earnest consideration of all the facts, the Committee has come to the conclusion that the right course to adopt is to transfer to the national Department all those administrative and professional functions which have already become in effect, and which in its opinion ought to be by law, nationally administered; and to invest the local educational authorities with new and responsible duties and give them greater liberty of action within their own domain by revising the whole system of regulations with a view to their simplification and the removal of unnecessarily irksome restrictions. The Committee is genuinely desirous that the Boards should occupy a dignified and important place in the new system, and its recommendation that there should be a single educational authority within each area unit of administration is designed 4*
Evidence of Director of Education.
Readjustment recommended.
Functions of local education authorities.
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52
for this express purpose. It believes that the Boards will find in the organization and co-ordination of the schools within their respective areas a worthy and responsible task. It has already recommended that the disbursement of the proposed bursary fund (the present scholarship funds) should be entrusted to the new Boards, so that its benefits may be equally distributed over rural as well as urban districts. The Committee is also of opinion that the duty of establishing a vocationalguidance organization within each district is one that should be entrusted to the Boards, to the staff of each of which a qualified vocational guidance officer should be attached. The consolidation of schools, the development of agricultural education, and the organization of district educational libraries will also be matters to which the Boards will require to give much earnest consideration, and which will afford wide scope for their organizing-powers. The principle whereby the District Superintendent is to be the Chief Executive Officer of the Board will, the Committee believes, be no less productive of good results in the wider sphere than it has been in that of technical school administration. With regard to the financial arrangements, the Committee suggests that, subject to necessary power reserved to the Minister to safeguard national interests where special grants from the public funds have been made, the Boards should have unfettered control of their own funds, and power to transfer money from one fund to another as may be found necessary. With respect to moneys raised locally for educational purposes the Committee is of opinion that, if Government subsidy is to be sought, and the Minister's approval first obtained, generous subsidies should be given upon such moneys ; and that upon municipal contributions for purposes to be set out in the regulations, and subject to such conditions as in the opinion of the Minister may be necessary in the public interest, £2 for every £l so contributed should be granted, within prescribed limits ; and, finally, that in the subsequent expenditure of such moneys the Boards —and the same principle should apply to the School Committees and Councils—should have full power. At this stage the Committee desires to place on record its high appreciation of the part taken in our education system by the School Committees, the members of which are deserving of the sincere thanks of the community and every encouragement in their public-spirited labours. The Committee is anxious that everything possible should be done to enhance the prestige of these Committees and to strengthen their position. It is convinced that a wide field of usefulness will be opened up for both the Boards and the Committees and Councils under the new organization, and that they will gain rather than lose by being entirely relieved of useless and unreal powers. It also believes that the whole system will work together more harmoniously, more efficiently, and more economically in consequence. The powers and responsibilities of the School Committees and Councils will cover all matters relating to the care of the grounds, buildings, and equipment of the school, the provision of libraries, playing areas, swimming pools, assembly halls, and all those almost innumerable things which create about a school that atmosphere and that tradition without which it is a formal, lifeless thing. This will be much easier of accomplishment under the proposed new appointments system, because there will be less changing of teachers, which will be one great advantage over the old system that will, it is believed, meet with unanimous approval. Reverting to the existing method of paying teachers and capitation allowances, the Committee has decided to lay down the principle that where payments have to be made according to fixed scales, prescribed by statute or regulation, and operating uniformly thioughout the Dominion, such payments should be made direct from the Department to the recipients, and should not pass through the Board's accounts at all. It is quite clear that the present practice involves delay, duplication of clerical staffs, and much friction. The Committee believes that the administrative economies thus effected will enable greater progress to be made with the general reduction of the size of classes in the primary schools. The provision for the sharing of services and officers in certain cases is intended to enable adjoining Boards to co-operate in providing one efficient service where the circumstances do not warrant two separate services being organized. This is an obvious application of the principle of consolidation, which the Committee thinks should be availed of wherever the division of effort would entail both unjustifiable expense and diminished efficiency. The provision for the inclusion of a certain number of Board members
Finances of local education authorities.
Appreciation of School Committees,
Direct payment of teachers and capitation recommended.
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nominated by the Government is suggested with the object of enabling agricultural, industrial, and other special interests to be represented on the Boards, as is done at present in the case of the Council of Education. The Committee is of opinion that this power should be exercised upon recommendations made by organizations directly connected with the interests concerned. The Committee therefore recommends — (10) That the powers and duties of the national Department under the proposed scheme of reorganization shall include the control of — (i) Administrative — (a) Native schools : (b) Child Welfare Branch: (c) Distribution of capitation allowances, special grants, and subsidies : {d) Payment of teachers : (e) Teachers' Superannuation Fund : (/) Power to make regulations (1) requiring Boards to share services and officers where, in Minister's opinion such a course is desirable in the interests of efficiency or economy, and (2) to ensure that earmarked grants are applied to authorized purposes only : (g) Appointment of nominated members of Boards. (ii) Professional — (h) Syllabus of instruction : (i) School certificates : (j) Inspection of schools : (k) Classification of teachers : (I) Appointment of teachers. (11) That the allowances paid to School Committees should be increased and adjusted so as to provide adequate funds to meet essential requirements, and that subsidies on moneys raised locally for school purposes should be on a generous basis. CHAPTER XI.—A NATIONAL TEACHING SERVICE. In his address, already quoted, delivered before the New Zealand Technical School Teachers' annual conference in May, 1929, the Minister of Education, the Hon. Harry Atmore, urged that the several teachers' organizations should unite to form a national organization ; and the Committee is of opinion that one of the most hopeful signs of the new movement in education in New Zealand is the recent establishment of the New Zealand Teachers' Federation, in which the ideal of an organically united teaching service, so ably presented to the Committee by Mr. J. G. Poison, M.A., president of the New Zealand Educational Institute, has been happily realized among the teachers themselves. The Committee feels that the precedent thus set should be followed by the parallel organization by the State of the whole teaching profession upon a unified national basis ; and the recommendations made in this section of the report are the outcome of an exhaustive investigation into the problem from every angle, and a sincere desire to present a practicable scheme upon which this all-important reform may be based. It is proposed first to present a brief statement of the difficulties and anomalies which the Committee's investigations revealed, and then to outline the proposals which it has to make with respect to their removal. There were in the New Zealand teaching service in 1928 — (1) 6,179 primary teachers, each mathematically evaluated by the Primary Inspectors upon six itemized grounds, and, upon the aggregate of marks so obtained, placed in a numerical order of merit upon what is known as the " Graded List." (2) 162 teachers in district high schools engaged in teaching secondary subjects, but evaluated by the same Inspectors and upon the same grounds, and placed upon the same Graded List as those in group (1) above.
Recommendations,
New Zealand Federation of Teachers.
Number of teachers in each branch of Service.
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54
(3) 143 teachers of manual, domestic, and agricultural subjects in connection with primary and district high schools, inspected by Technical Inspectors, and graded in two divisions, each with seven subdivisions. (4) 623 teachers (including Principals) in secondary schools inspected by Secondary Inspectors, and graded in divisions lettered from A to D. (5) 197 teachers (including Principals) in technical high schools engaged in teaching secondary subjects, inspected by Technical Inspectors, and graded in seven subdivisions in Division I (graduates) of the technical service. (6) 129 teachers in technical high schools engaged in teaching technical subjects, inspected by Technical Inspectors, and graded in seven subdivisions of Division II (non-graduates) of technical service. The more the Committee examined into the state of affairs set out above, the more apparent its anomalies became. For example, whereas the Primary-school Inspectors work within Education districts, the Secondary Inspectors and the Technical Inspectors range independently of one another over the whole Dominion. The disconcerting effect of this upon school work was brought out by Mr. Ryder, Principal of the Rotorua High School, in his evidence quoted in an earlier section. The three Inspectorates and the three Graded Lists are altogether independent of one another. Thus it comes about, for another example, that the Dominion's secondary teaching strength is split up into three sections —one on the Primary List, graded by Primary Inspectors ; the second on the Secondary List, graded by Secondary Inspectors, and the third on the Technical List, graded by Technical Inspectors. In the matter of appointments it appeared that teachers on the Primary Graded List (whether secondary or primary) are promoted strictly in accordance with their numerical position on the list, with provision in what are known as " specialist " appointments for the elimination of lower qualified candidates, and the consequent restricted application of the list. As the salaries are attached to the positions, and promotion is only obtainable by a change of position, teachers are always applying for new positions, with the result that they are constantly on the move, to the great detriment of the schools and the children. The period of uncertainty and suspense while waiting for the result of an application is considerably prolonged by the now empty formalities which the law still requires in respect of the " consultation" of the Committees by the Boards, notwithstanding that the appointments are in reality automatically controlled by the Graded List ; and the psychological effect of such continued suspense must be taken into account in judging the system here described. In the secondary schools, while the staffing scale is drawn up with reference to the system of grading, appointments are still made on a patronage basis—that is to say, applicants are required to submit testimonials, &c., and selection is by the local Board. Personal, social, and even religious considerations are, therefore, not necessarily excluded from influencing the decisions arrived at. Moreover, through the system of appointment not being on a national basis, there is no means of preventing the banking up of the higher graded teachers on the staffs of city high schools, to the disadvantage of those in rural centres. An examination of recent staffing lists of the secondary schools shows, for example, that in 1928, at the Auckland Grammar School, four positions graded B, B, C, D were occupied respectively by teachers graded A, A, B, C ; while at the Whangarei High School the reverse was the case, three positions graded A, B, C being occupied respectively by teachers graded B, C, D. In the following year twenty-seven candidates from the Auckland Grammar School secured ten of the thirty-four University Entrance Scholarships available for the whole of New Zealand, and thirteen places on the credit list; while seven candidates from the Whangarei High School obtained no scholarships, and only three places on the credit list. In the opinion of the Committee, a system which permits of such disparity of teaching strength in favour of urban and to the detriment of rural schools ought not to be continued. In the technical high schools appointments are also made by the local Boards upon applications made and testimonials supplied. Here, however, the salaries are
Anomalies indicated
System of appointment in primary schools.
System of appointment in secondary schools,
Differentiation of salaries in technical schools.
55
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on a different basis, not being attached to the positions, but paid to the teachers according to a scale which prescribes higher classification and remuneration for teachers qualified to teach academic subjects than for those qualified to teach technical (manual, domestic, and agricultural) subjects only. The Committee is of opinion that these disparities are based upon a wrong conception of the relative importance of the subjects taught, and imply social distinctions of a character which ought not to be tolerated. The position of the secondary assistants in the district high schools is unsatisfactory, in that, being anomalously classified as primary and not secondary teachers, they are not eligible to apply in the ordinary way for corresponding positions in the secondary schools where the work is the same but the salary higher. Upon investigation into the question of salaries the Committee found the systems in operation to be most intricate and confusing. The computation of a primary teacher's salary is arrived at, like his grading assessment, by the addition of a number of itemized allowances to the basic position salary, which is itself a variable one, dependent upon the average attendance at the school. These additions may include —(a) married allowance ; (b) house allowance (where no residence is provided) ; (c) district high school allowance (for secondary teachers) ; (d) remote allowance (in certain districts) ; (e) grading increment (directly related to the teacher's position on the Graded List and the grade of his position taken in conjunction). In the higher grades discrimination is made between the salaries of single men and women in favour of the former. When it is realized that most of these additions are themselves scaled, it will be understood that the amount of clerical labour entailed in making out the monthly pay-sheets at the Board offices, and in checking them over for the whole Dominion at the central Department, must be very great. The salaries in secondary schools are based, as the case may be, upon the position salary, plus married or house allowance, plus a special allowance to assistants in charge of subject departments in large schools. In addition, special allowances are payable in connection with the oversight of school hostels where such exist. Technical School teachers' salaries are based upon the number of hours per week spent in teaching, this being due to their being required to teach evening as well as day classes. All these scales of salaries have been drawn up independently of each other, with the result that the disparities in remuneration are not only striking in the extreme, but occasion much heartburning, dissatisfaction, and jealousy throughout the whole Service. The following extracts from the evidence of the Director of Education and of teachers appearing as the representatives of their respective organizations indicate the more glaring of these anomalies : — Extract from the Evidence of the Director of Education, Mr. T. B. Strong, M.A., B.Sc. New Zealand stands almost alone with its system of " paying the position and not the teacher." In England, under the various Burnham scales, the salary of an assistant teacher advances with length of service, while the salary of a head teacher does likewise within certain limits fixed in accordance with the size of the school. In America similar scales are in operation. In Australia teachers are paid according to their classification into three main classes, each of which has two subclasses. In New Zealand we tolerate an iniquitous system whereby the salary of an efficient teacher depends only indirectly on his efficiency, but mainly on the number of positions carrying a higher salary. Only in the technical branch are salaries directly paid according to qualifications and efficiency. There is no doubt, too, that anomalies exist —for example, in paying the most efficient head teacher of the largest primary school £5 less than a first-class male assistamt in a secondary school. It is not anomalous to pay the head of a large secondary or technical school a considerably higher salary than a primary headmaster. The duties and responsibilities of the former are much heavier than those of the primary man. Not only is secondary work more advanced, but problems of control and of organization are much more complex. It may, however, be rightly regarded as anomalous that the principal of a large technical high school with nearly 1,000 day pupils and probably more than 1,000 evening pupils, whose school is in use for eight hours a day, and who also acts as Secretary to his Board and is responsible for the collection of fees and for the organization of almost innumerable subjects of instruction, should be paid no higher salary than the Principal of a secondary school with no such complications. For the above reasons I would urge the Committee to recommend the Government to direct a revision of all salary scales with the object of removing existing anomalies and of paying teachers on the general basis of qualifications, efficiency, and length of service. I wish, however, to make it quite clear that, in my opinion, the adoption of such a system of remuneration will naturally bring with it the national appointment of teachers.
Position of secondary assistants in district high schools.
Intricacy of salary scheme in primary service.
Salary schemes in post-primary schools.
Disparities pointed out.
Evidence of Director of Education.
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Extract from the Evidence of Mr. W. A. Swinbotjrn, President of the New Zealand Primary Schools Headmasters' Association. We submit that an essential in any reorganization is the removal of the disparity between the salaries paid to headmasters in the primary and post-primary services. Present salary scales rate the worth of the primary headmaster at from 62 per cent, to 67 per cent, of that of the secondary headmaster, and place a higher value on the services of secondary and technical senior assistants than those of any primary headmaster. The nature of the disparity is indicated in the following table : —
Evidence of President, New Zealand Primary Schools Headmasters' Association.
This association maintains that this disparity is unwarranted, and that the primary headmaster can claim equality with the secondary headmaster on these grounds : — (а) His responsibilities are as great, if not greater. He controls, as a rule, a very much larger number of pupils. The ninety-four Grade VII primary schools each had in 1928 an average attendance of over 600 pupils, equal to an average roll of about 650, while the forty-five secondary schools had an average roll of only 334. There are in the Dominion over 150 primary schools of 400 to 900 pupils, but very few secondary schools of the same size. His pupils are at an undeveloped stage, with habits unformed or in the process of formation. The mental, moral, and physical habits of secondary pupils are already set in a definite direction when they enter a high school, so that the secondary headmaster does not have to face many of the difficulties and responsibilities that beset the primary headmaster. His pupils are at the most plastic stage, when the training given has a greater effect on their future career than any given later. (б) His duties are at least as onerous. He has to maintain efficiency with a much smaller staff —one assistant to each forty average attendance (equal to forty-five on the roll), as against one assistant to each thirty on the roll on the Ist March in secondary schools. Extract from the Evidence oe Mr. W. Eraser, M.A., President, New Zealand Technical School Teachers' Association. During discussions in the House last session on the subject of primary-school headmasters' salaries repeated references were made which implied that Principals of secondary and technical schools were on a par as far as salary was concerned. This persistent bracketing of secondary and technical-school Principals was most unjust to technical-school Principals, and tended to obscure the most disadvantageous position they are placed in when comparison is made with secondary-school Principals. The position is as follows : Twenty-eight secondary-school Principals, with an average salary of £726, control 10,598 full-time pupils. Twenty technical-school Principals, with an average salary of £649, control 7,280 full-time and 9,071 part-time pupils. In addition, in several cases they have charge of manual-training centres as well. In two cases at least the number of manual-training pupils is in the vicinity of 1,000. The technical-school Principal is compelled by regulation to be Secretary to his Board, which necessitates the control of office-work which is very much in excess of that required in a secondary school, where it is invariably carried out by a paid accountant. On a basis of equivalent staff or equivalent pupils, the difference between the salaries is anything from £100 to £150. And this difference does not take into consideration the fact that three different schools —the technical high school, the evening classes, and the manual-training centre—may be under the control of the technical high-school Principal; nor does it take cognizance of the extra office-work involved. Under the circumstances it is a very debateable point whether the technicalschool Principals are better paid at all than the primary-school headmasters. The position is rather a reflection on technical education as compared with secondary education. The academic qualifications of technical-school Principals compare most favourably with those of secondary-school Principals, while most of the former are possessed of distinctly technical qualifications as well. Such anomalies as the following have occurred : — (1) A Principal, as Secretary to his Board, has filled in larger monthly cheques for one of his assistants than for himself. (2) A Principal appointed to a school has had to accept a smaller salary than he was receiving as an assistant. (3) A Principal has found it more advantageous to remain on the Grading List as an assistant than to accept, the graded salary of his school. (4) A Principal in charge of over 400 technical-high-school pupils, 1,000 manual-training pupils, and nearly 400 evening students, witli an equivalent staff of twenty-two is paid the same grade of salary, £670-£720, as the Principal of a secondary school of 250330 pupils and a staff of ten to twelve, though a secondary school staffed with twentytwo assistants would entail a salary of £815-£B6O.
Evidence of President, New Zealand Technical School Teachers' Association.
Number of Assistants. Maximum Salary. A School of Number of Secondary Assistants ' c 00 0 at £590 per Annum. Secondary. Primary. Secondary. I Primary. £ £ 100 .. .. 4 2 680 425 200 .. .. 8 5 730 465 1 300 .. .. 12 6 780 525 2 400 .. 15 8 825 545 2 500 .. .. 18 11 875 585 3 600 and over .. 22+ 13+ 920 585 3+
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My association is of the opinion that sufficient recognition is not given to teachers in Division 11. These teachers have to work on the same staff as their Division I colleagues and have, consequently, a professional status to maintain. The difference between the salaries in the corresponding classes is approximately £100. But this is not all, for the allotment of marks for academic attainments makes it very difficult for a Division II teacher to rise above Class V, the maximum salary for which is £355 for men and £260 for women. The maximum salary in Class YII —the highest class —is £415 for men and £300 for women. Extract from the Evidence op Miss Elsie Andrews, President, New Zealand Women Teachers' Association. Our request is that in the event of a new salary scheme being introduced the basis shall be nondifferentiation as between women and unmarried men. We contend that living is exactly as expensive for the one sex as for the other, and that the work done by women is of exactly the same value as that done by men. We cannot refute the contention that many women teachers do not remain for a long period in the profession. It is a healthy fact, although the percentage of retirements is not, perhaps, so high as might be supposed. E. 1., on page 20, gives the wastage due not only to marriage, but also to death and retirement, as 8 per cent. We contend that while a teacher remains in the Service she should be paid for her efficiency, and young teachers, even though they may not devote their lives to the profession, can and do make a very vital contribution to educational progress. Their fresh outlook, their vigorous spirit, their abounding enthusiasm, are surely virtues to be encouraged rather than penalized. The ultimate effect of such penalty, moreover, is borne not by those teachers who marry, but by the very women who make teaching their life-work. During the six years that the double scale has been in operation there has been engendered in women teachers a degree of bitter resentment not before known in. this country. Since its introduction in 1923 women have not ceased to state, privately and publicly, their objections to being made the victims of such a vicious principle. We have appealed to the Department from year to year, but so far nothing has been done. In October, 1928, we appealed to Parliament, but, although our petition was recommended for favourable consideration, again nothing has yet been done. Have women teachers any suggestions to make regarding the construction of an equitable salary scale ? Yes, we have. We suggest that a payment shall be for efficiency, irrespective of sex, and that a sliding scale shall be added to provide for dependent children. We are convinced that in no other way can salaries be paid to achieve the twofold object of a contented Service combined with the adequate recognition of actual domestic responsibilities. The three New Zealand salary scales are embodied in regulations issued in pamphlet form (N. 7, N. 11, and X. 14) for each branch of the Service separately, and occupying altogether some fifteen pages therein. In contradistinction with their complexity the Committee was impressed with the striking simplicity of the salary scheme in operation in Victoria, the whole of which is set out in a single schedule, covering in both primary and secondary (including technical) divisions all positions from that of junior teacher to head teacher, in less than two pages of the Teachers Act, 1925, as follows : —
Evidence of President, New Zealand Women Teachers' Association.
Attention called to simplicity ot Victorian salary schedule.
Victorian Teachers Act, 1925. —Third Schedule. PART I. Scale showing Classes, Subdivisions, and Rates of Annual Salary of Teachers in the Primary Schools Division.
Subdivisions. Class. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Male Teachers. £££££££££ Class V .. 156 168 192 204 228 252 276 300 312 „ IV .. 336 360 384 „ III .. 408 432 456 II .. .. 480 504 528 I .. 552 576 600 Female Teachers. Class V .. .. *120 *132 156 168 180 204 228 240 252 „ IV .. 264 288 312 Ill .. 324 348 372 „ II .. 384 408 420 „ Ha .. 432 456 480 * Female head teachers in the first or second subdivision of Class V shall in addition to the salary provided in Part I of this Schedule be paid an allowance at the rate of twenty-four pounds per annum.
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Junior Teachers. —Rates of Annual Salary. Junior teachers who have passed the School Leaving Examination of the University of Melbourne or hold an approved equivalent qualification : — Male. Female. Ist year .. . . £94 [ Ist year . , .. £74 2nd year . . . . £106 | 2nd year . . .. £84 3rd year .. .. £118 j 3rd year .. . . £94 For junior teachers who have not passed the School Leaving Examination of the University of Melbourne or do not hold an approved equivalent qualification the rates of annual salary shall be £12 less than as set out above. Provided that junior teachers who necessarily are required to live away from home shall be paid at a rate of not less than £84 per annum. Sewing Mistresses. Rate of annual salary .. .. .. .. £60 Teachers of Night Schools. —Rates of Annual Salary. In schools where the attendance is not less than 30, but under 40 .. £72 In schools where the attendance is not less than 40, but under 50 .. £84 In schools where the attendance is not less than 50, but under 60 .. £96 And so on in proportion to the attendance.
PART II. Scale showing Classes, Subdivisions, and Rates of Annual Salary of Teachers in the Secondary Schools Division.
The Committee is of opinion that the facts disclosed above warrant the conclusion that the time has come when the whole teaching service should be unified, as suggested by the Minister, and a single national Teachers' Register, or Classified Roll, instituted. The Committee believes that its recommendations for a compulsory exploratory period of post-primary education from 11 plus to 15 years, and for the complete unification of educational administration within each district, together with the unification of the Inspectorate, would be rendered largely nugatory if the present divisions among the teachers, and the anomalies and disparities in the systems of appointment and payment, were allowed to remain. It is further of opinion that there is no necessity for the extreme complexity of the present salary scales, and strongly recommends that a new scale be prepared covering the whole Service, based upon the principles of the payment of the teacher instead of the payment of the position, together with recognition of family responsibilities, as provided in the present income-tax exemptions and recommended by the New Zealand Women Teachers' Association ; also that there should be no discrimination between men and women teachers. The Committee gave earnest consideration to the present system of grading teachers, especially in the primary schools. It recognizes and freely admits the important part which this system has played in the abolition of the old patronage system of appointment, in the destruction of the barriers between the education districts, and in establishing the primary teaching service upon a firm national basis. At the same time it cannot shut its eyes to the fact that the system has been strongly criticized not only by lay educationists on the Boards and School Committees, but
National teachers' classified roll proposed.
New salary scale to be prepared.
Numerical grading system condemned.
Subdivisions. Class. 1. 2. 3. 4. 1 5. \ 6. 7. Male Teachers. £ £ £ £ £ £ £ Class Y .. .. 192 216 240 264 276 300 324 „ IV .. .. 348 372 384 396 „ III .. .. 420 444 468 492 j 516 II .. .. 528 552 576 .. | I .. 600 625 650 .. I Female Teachers. Class V .. .. 168 192 216 240 252 264 „ IV .. 276 300 324 .... Ill .. .. 348 372 384 396 420 444 II .. .. 468 492 .. .. j .. | „ IIa .. 516 528 .. .. .. ! ..
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also by a number of prominent primary teachers themselves. Investigation certainly seems to justify the criticisms made. Indeed, for fifty-two'lnspectors to attempt annually to assess 6,341 teachers in numerical ratio of actual out of possible marks under each of the following six grouped heads —Skill in teaching ; Personality, discipline, and environment; Organization and management; Academic attainments ; Service ; and Relative efficiency—seems to a body of laymen to be almost incredible. Yet that is what is actually done every year in the primary service, the whole body of the teachers being finally placed in mathematical order, with the right of appeal to a special Court for each teacher. Altogether apart from the amount of the Inspector's time which these calculations must occupy — time which the Committee cannot help feeling could be better spent in demonstration and organizing work in the schools themselves—it would appear that the grading system bids fair to become, if it has not already done so, as withering in its effect upon the teaching service generally, and, possibly, upon the Inspectorate also, as the Proficiency and Matriculation Examinations have been upon the work of the pupils. True education cannot possibly flourish under such conditions ; nor can the Committee, having in view the important reorganization and revitalization proposals which it has already made, contemplate with equanimity the extension of this system to the unified national teaching service now recommended. Happily, a better way has been discovered of dealing with this problem, which, it would seem, was proving a source of similar anxiety in other countries than our own. Faced with the same difficulty, the Victorian Education Department, following on the enactment of the Teachers Act, 1925, abandoned a similar system of rigid numerical assessment of teachers for one of classification in broad groups based upon general teaching efficiency. The new system has now been long enough in operation to form a judgment of its merits, which are thus set out by Mr. J. Mcßae, M.A., Chief Inspector of Schools of Victoria (Report of the Minister of Public Instruction, 1929) " Assessment of Teachers. " The transition from the older rigid system of assessing the work of teachers by a numerical estimate to the plan of placing each teacher in one of a few broad groups (' Excellent,' ' Very good,' ' Grood,' &c.) has been effected without any friction or heartburning. The new system seems to have commended itself to both teachers and Inspectors. The Committee of Classifiers certainly found the preparation of the annual Promotion List under the new conditions a much less cumbrous task. Instead of, as in previous years, having to spend much time in computing numerical values for such disparates as teaching efficiency, length of service, and literary qualifications, the Classifiers were able to compare teacher with teacher upon a broad human basis and to take into account every meritorious feature of a teacher's work. It is significant that the number of appeals by teachers against the Promotion List as thus prepared was much lower than usual, as was also the number of appeals allowed. It is proposed to introduce in 1929 a scale of assessments that will apply uniformly to all divisions —elementary, secondary, and technical. This will avoid the misunderstanding that now sometimes arises when a teacher is transferred from one of these divisions to another, and finds that his assessment mark has suffered an apparent reduction." These results enumerated by Mr. Mcßae appeal strongly to the Committee, and it therefore recommends that the present grading systems be replaced by one similar to that now operating in Victoria. The Committee has further carefully studied the system of appointments prescribed by the Victorian Teachers Act above referred to, and, having regard to New Zealand conditions, recommends that a National Appointments Committee be constituted in a manner similar to the present Teachers Grading Appeal Board (which will no longer be required), but for the whole Dominion ; and that to this Committee be entrusted the responsibility of preparing the Teachers' Classified Roll, or Register, and the annual Promotion List, together with that of nominating teachers to positions either following upon advertisement and applications called from qualified persons whose names are on the Promotion List within the appropriate class, or by transfer, in which latter case it is recommended that the reasonable removal expenses of the teacher so transferred be paid. It is further proposed that all appointments and transfers be made so as to take effect at the same time in each year. It is suggested that initial vacancies be advertised and filled in the month of October, and consequential vacancies in
Victorian system recommended.
National Appointments Committee to be set up.
All staff changes to take eflect from beginning of year.
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November, with final adjustment in December by transfer, all changes to take effect after the summer vacation ; and that a permanent relieving staff be maintained for the purpose of filling casual vacancies occurring during the year. To this staff all probationary assistants not placed in permanent positions at the end of their final year of training should be attached until so placed. This will solve the difficulty with regard to the prolonged period of unemployment which such teachers now frequently experience. These measures will ensure all the schools starting the year's work with full and permanent staffs, and so continuing to its end. The Committee believes that this reform will meet with unanimous approval by all educationists throughout the Dominion. An important feature of the proposed national system of appointments is that it will enable the full teaching strength of the Dominion to be mobilized and utilized to the best advantage in all types of schools throughout the country. By this means the needs of country schools will be met and the present uneven distribution of teaching power as between urban and rural centres will be obviated. The Teachers' Court of Appeal will continue to fill its valuable place in the system, and the Committee recommends that in addition to the present grounds of appeal there should be right of appeal against non-inclusion in the Promotion List and non-appointment under the new system. The Committee therefore recommends— (12) (a) That there should be only one Teachers' Register for the whole teaching service. (h) That a new salary scale be \ prepared covering the whole Education Service, with a view to the elimination of anomalies at present existing as between the primary, secondary, and technical services, and between men and women teachers ; and that this scale should be based upon the principle of the payment of the teacher instead of the payment of the position, together with recognition of family responsibilities. (c) That the system of numerical grading hitherto in use in the primary service be abolished in favour of classification by Inspectors in broad groups based upon teaching efficiency. (d) That the appointment of teachers should be entrusted to a National Appointments Committee constituted in a manner similar to the present Teachers' Grading Appeal Board, the system of appointment to include provision for — (i) Preparation of Teachers' Classified Roll: (ii) Preparation of an annual Promotion List within each classified group, based upon Inspectors' reports, copies of which should be supplied to the teachers : (iii) Appointment by National Committee, which shall also have power to transfer, reasonable removal expenses to be paid in cases of compulsory transfer : (iv) All appointments to be made in the same month of the year, with consequential appointments in the month following ; vacancies then remaining to be filled by transfer, and sufficient permanent relieving staff to be maintained to fill casual vacancies until next period of appointment: (v) Right of appeal to Teachers' Court of Appeal against (a) non-inclusion in the Promotion List; (b) suspension, dismissal, reduction of salary, nonappointment ,or transfer to a lower paid appointment.
Teachers' Court of Appeal.
Recommendations.
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SECTION 3. POST-SECONDARY EDUCATION. CHAPTER XII.—UNIVERSITY REORGANIZATION. The Order of Reference of the Committee specifically included " the training of teachers, higher education, technical education . . . and any other matters affecting education." In all four University centres the Committee heard evidence from responsible administrators, University Professors, Principals of training colleges, Directors of technical colleges, and others with regard to these matters. It had also before it the valuable reports of the Royal Commissions on University Education in 1879 and 1925, together with many other special reports, documents, and papers relative to the matters under consideration, amongst which may be mentioned a book entitled " University Reform," published in 1911 by the University Reform Association, of which Professor T. A. Hunter, M.A., M.Sc., was honorary secretary ; a pamphlet entitled " Some Aspects of University Teaching in New Zealand," published in 1926 by the New Zealand University Teachers' Association, of which Dr. James Hight, M.A., Litt.D., was president; and a special report upon the finances of the University and the University colleges, prepared in 1928 by Messrs. A. Bell, M.A., Assistant Director of Education, and T. A. Barrow, Inspecting Accountant, Department of Education. Taking the report of the 1925 Royal Commission as a starting-point for its investigations, the Committee was impressed with the frankness with which the Commissioners — Sir Harry Reichel, K. 8., LL.D., and Mr. Frank Tate, C.M.GL, M. A.—laid bare, on the one hand, what they considered to be the " false ideals " which the New Zealand University Senate had pursued throughout its existence, and, on the other, the unsatisfactory and disheartening conditions under which the University colleges were compelled to do their work. " University teaching cannot live under such conditions," the Commissioners stated ; but although they made well-nigh one hundred individual recommendations dealing with the many matters requiring reform, the general effect of their report has been rather a patching-up of the system which they condemned than a fundamental reorganization of it, such as the strictures passed would have undoubtedly justified. The reason for this temporary acquiescence in the continuance of the existing system in a slightly modified form, and reluctance to recommend any vital change of a permanent character, is stated in the concluding sentences of the section of the report which deals with this aspect of the situation, as follows : — Extract prom the Report of the Reichel-Tate Royal Commission, 1925. We have elsewhere stressed what we regard as a strong argument against the early separation into four universities —viz., the effect of forty years of university work under conditions most unfavourable for developing a high type of university teaching, and a fine conception of the place and function of the university in the life of the community. The scheme we propose for the immediate future will, we consider, form an excellent preparation for the separation which will no doubt take place hereafter when the progress of the Dominion justifies it. To-dav, therefore, five years later, this Committee finds itself faced with substantially the same problems, except that the system is still more worn and torn and difficult to patch ; for, notwithstanding the efforts that have been made during the intervening years to improve the position—and it is clear that a very great deal has been done in many directions to give effect to the recommendations of the Commission —the essential features of our university system remain unaltered, and
Scope of Committee's Inquiry.
Reichel-Tate Commission.
Extract from Commission's Report.
Defects in presen system.
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the major defects pointed out by it still persist. Briefly summarized the Committee finds these defects to be — (a) Unduly large classes; (b) Inadequate libraries ; (c) Inadequate opportunities for research work on the part of staff and students; (d) Wasteful and unnecessary multiplication of special schools ; (e) Unduly small proportion of full-time students attending the University colleges ; (f) Lack of adequate safeguards in connection with the system of granting bursaries and studentships carrying the privilege of free University education ; (g) Inadequate and disparate salary and staffing scales at the University Colleges; (h) Harmful domination of the whole field of post-primary education by the present University Entrance Scholarships and Matriculation Examinations ; (i) Comparatively low standard of matriculation, and consequently low standard of University work in the junior classes ; (j) Maintenance of a system of duplicated external examination ; (k) Lack of proper co-ordination and co-operation between the Teachers' Training Colleges and the University College Schools of Education ; (I) Lack of any adequate system of professional training for post-primary teachers ; (m) Lack of co-ordination and co-operation between the technical colleges and the University college technical schools. These defects the Committee considers to be the external symptoms of an internal malady, which the Royal Commission diagnosed with clear insight and expert skill, but for which it prescribed a number of temporary palliatives instead of a far-reaching and permanent remedy. Such a remedy the Committee believes is to be found by applying to the problems of post-secondary education the same principles which it has recommended for adoption in the primary and post-primary fields, viz. : —- (1) Unification of control with a view to co-ordinated, and therefore harmonious, efficient, and economical, working; (2) Consolidation of schools and classes with a view to making the fullest use of existing buildings, equipment, and staffs ; (3) Decentralization of control, with adequate safeguards to protect national interests. The present section deals first with the application of these principles to (a) the interrelation of the existing University and agricultural colleges, and reseach institutions ; (b) the relation of the teachers' training colleges to the University colleges ; and (c) the relation of the technical colleges to the University colleges. The solution of the problems relating to school leaving certificates, University entrance standards and examinations, free University education, and the training of apprentices, depends, in the opinion of the Committee, very largely upon the measure of success with which these first three fundamental relationships are reorganized and co-ordinated. Turning, then, to the actual problems, the Committee felt that it was first of all necessary to submit, from the abundant and unanimous evidence placed before it, the plain facts of the position as stated by prominent and representative administrators and professors at the present time. The following, therefore, is a collation from the voluminous evidence upon these matters which the Committee considers to be a fair sample of the whole. Extract from the Evidence of the Director of Education, Mr. T. B. Strong, M.A., B.Sc. The New Zealand University is not a teaching body, but only an examining body that determines by means of its Entrance Examination or otherwise the fitness of students to enter upon degree and diploma courses and, after examination, awards degrees, diplomas, scholarships, and certificates to students who, in the judgment of examiners whom the University appoints, reach certain standards of academic attainment.
Guiding principles of reform.
Evidence of Director of Education.
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The four University colleges at Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin are autonomous. They are teaching bodies, appointing their own staffs of professors and lecturers. [The two Agricultural Colleges] are also autonomous. They are not constituent colleges, but hold much the same position as any of the special schools, such as the School of Architecture at Auckland, the School of Engineering at Christchurch, and the Medical, Dental, and Mining Schools at Dunedin. Massey College is for University degree and diploma purposes regarded as being attached to both Auckland and Victoria University Colleges, while Lincoln is for the same purpose regarded as being attached to Canterbury College. There is, however, no vital connection so far as control is concerned. Thus has arisen that duplication and overlapping of University-college work that is to-day so noticeable, and that, if not checked, will become a drain on the country's resources. Auckland University College and Canterbury College both have Schools of Forestry, each attended by a mere handful of students, and each with a staff over-burdened with the teaching of a multiplicity of subjects. Auckland is rapidly developing a School of Engineering in rivalry to the long-established School of Engineering at Canterbury College. Auckland is reaching out to establish a Medical School notwithstanding that there is already a Medical School of long standing at Otago University quite capable of training all the medical men required in New Zealand. Canterbury College has long had a School of Art which is recognized by the New Zealand University for the purposes of the diploma in Fine Arts. Auckland College also intends to have a University School of Art. Quite recently, as you are aware, bequests made to Auckland and Victoria University Colleges encouraged each to set going a School in Agriculture, and the agreement of each to forgo its claims to such a school led to the establishment of the Massey Agricultural College, a rival to the older Lincoln College. How far is this duplication of University work to be allowed to go ? Both the University of New Zealand and the constituent colleges resent interference by the Government, but when it is realized that the people of New Zealand are contributing Is. 9d. per head of population towards University education, while England contributes lid., Victoria lid., and New South Wales Is., surely the representatives of the people who thus contribute more liberally than is done in England or in any Australian State have the right, if not a duty, to say whether or not this system of wasteful duplication shall or shall not be allowed to continue. A second weakness in the University is one which I do not suggest can best be remedied by legislation. It is one probably common to all Universities in the British Empire —namely, the prevalence of an antiquated form of lecturing to the students. This practice has come down through the ages from a time when books were difficult, if not impossible, to procure and the professor found it necessary to dictate a text-book to his students. Such a method of instruction cannot be called teaching. Certainly a few of the more progressive professors adopt the method of giving notes supplementing or correcting recognized text-books, and such teachers can therefore find time to discuss difficult points with the students and deal more fully with the questions the latter are encouraged to ask. It appears to me that, as the people of New Zealand give the University and its colleges no less a sum than £127,000 annually, the people, through their representatives, have every right to interfere in a matter that so greatly affects the welfare of the students. Parliament, having control of the grants-in-aid, could place on the New Zealand University Senate the responsibility of setting its house in order, or, alternatively, appoint a Commission to investigate the position and bring down recommendations that would have the effect of, first, preventing wasteful overlapping and duplication of University activities, and, second, modernizing the methods of instruction. Extracts prom the Evidence of Sir Thomas Sidey, Chancellor op the University op Otago. It is felt that the salaries of professors are quite inadequate. They certainly do not compare favourably with the salaries paid in Australia and other parts of the Empire, and, taking into account the diminished purchasing-power of the pound sterling, they are very much less than the salaries paid in this University fifty years ago. Last year a medical professorship was advertised in Great Britain, aind after the applications had been considered by a committee of experts the High Commissioner cabled that no suitable candidate had applied, and later stated that the chief reason for the lack of suitable candidates was that the salary, £1,000 per annum, was inadequate. He added that the University of Liverpool had just advertised a similar post at £1,200 per annum, and that the field of applicants was not a strong one. Under the present arrangement the Principal or Vice-Principal of the Training College is expected to act as assistant to the Professor of Education. This arrangement has not worked satisfactorily here, nor, we are informed, has it worked satisfactorily in any of the other centres, except possibly in Canterbury, where additional remuneration is paid to the Training College Principal. The Chair of Education was established at the request of the Department of Education, and we think, therefore, that the Department should provide adequate assistance, and should also provide funds to pay the professor the same salary as is paid to other professors. The difficulties attending upon University education are very largely those of finance. The financial question is the one which we are continually up against in the University as well as other educational institutions. We feel that in Otago we have actually been under-paying our professors compared with the remuneration paid in other colleges. Our professors were being paid £850. The basis on which the scheme was worked out by the Education Department was the payment to our professors of £900. I frankly admit that we went beyond that —we have paid our professors a minimum of £950, and the Medical Professor £1,000. We have felt that we could not pay them less. Even now
Evidence of Chancellor of University of Olago.
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we are paying less than Auckland and Wellington. In Auckland the maximum is £1,000, and T think it is the same in Victoria College, Wellington. Speaking generally about the salaries of professors, I would point out that the professors are on an entirely different footing from the teachers in our primary and secondary schools. We do not, as a rule, go outside to find our teachers for the primary and secondary schools, but in the case of our University professors we are in the world's markets, and we are constantly losing excellent men because of the better attractions offered by institutions outside New Zealand. The Committee will understand, therefore, that the question of salaries is a very important one, and has a great bearing on the efficiency of the institution. Extracts prom the Evidence of Professor T. A. Hunter, M.A., M.Sc., ViceChancellor op the New Zealand University, and Professor J. Rankine Brown, M.A., Professor of Classics, Victoria University College, incorporating also Extracts prom the Evidence of Dr. James Hight, M.A., Litt.D., Rector of Canterbury College. (Professor Hunter stated that the opinions he expressed were his personal views only.) Hon. Mr. Atmore : You are familiar with the contents of the report of the Royal Commission on University Education of 1925 —the Reichel-Tate report ? Professor Hunter : Yes. Hon. Mr. Atmore : You are aware that that report comments strongly upon the inadequate staffing and library facilities of the University colleges, and the external examination system and lack of research work done within the New Zealand University ? Professor Hunter: Yes. That is being partly met —we are gradually adopting an internal system of examination, and so far as research work is concerned it is largely increasing. Practically for all the higher degrees now some thesis is required. Hon. Mr. Atmore: You are a member of the University Teachers' Association of New Zealand ? Professor Hunter : Yes. Hon. Mr. Atmore: And you are familiar with Dr. Plight's pamphlet, " Some Aspects of University Teaching " ? Professor Hunter : Yes. Hon. Mr. Atmore : Have you seen Dr. Hight's evidence ? Professor Hunter : No. Hon. Mr. Atmore: In the course of his evidence he said: — [Dr. James Hight.] " The University colleges, as judged by the minimum customary standards of other countries, are overcrowded, understaffed, ill equipped, and lacking altogether in funds that allow for development. In respect of Canterbury College some of the very urgent needs have reference to —Libraries and library equipment : The Royal Commission on the University in 1925 said that the condition of the college libraries gave them much concern (Report E.-7a, p. 87), and expressed the opinion that a greatly increased provision for libraries is imperatively needed by grant, both capital and annual. 'At Bangor,' they say, ' the smallest of the three original colleges of the Welsh University, which in number of students is little more than half the size of any of the New Zealand University colleges, the library contains upwards of 60,000 volumes, about half as many again as are found in their four combined libraries.' This failure to provide even the pale shade of a normal University library is a most serious reproach against New Zealand in the eyes of overseas visitors, and tends to condemn us as people lacking any true sense of intellectual values. The library is the central organ in the life of the University. It represents the capitalized knowledge of the institution. Unless that capital circulates freely among staff and students, the business of University education cannot be carried on to the best advantage. Our building is hopelessly small and badly planned ; the stock of books and periodicals and the annual supply are meagre in the extreme. It is a bitter grievance to new professors, and visitors from other universities do not hesitate to describe the provision made for libraries in New Zealand generally as scandalous." Would you agree with that < Professor Hunter : I think so. I do not know that I would use the same words, but I would agree with that. The University acting for the colleges some little while ago applied to the Carnegie Institute of America for £20,000 to make up past deficiencies in the library. I think the matter ought to be considered in relation to the question of full-time and part-time students. You might very well increase the library facilities a great deal in the University colleges and still the students might not. be able to avail themselves of the privileges, because a great many of them are part-timers. But in the main I agree with that criticism. I think it is true that our libraries are defective. Professor Rankine Brown : One very important thing is to make up for lost ground. The formation of the libraries began rather late in the day, and in order to bring them up to proper standards it will be necessary to purchase a tremendous number of books. lam a member of the Senate and am also a member of the professorial board of Victoria College. Our library there is probably as efficient as any of the other libraries. The Council has been reasonably generous to us in the matter of giving books, but it is still ludicrously small compared with other Universities.
Evidence of ViceChancellor of University of New Zealand and of Professor J. Rankine Brown.
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Hon. Mr. Atmore: With regard to the number of students, Dr. Hight, in giving evidence before the members of this Committee, said: — [Dr. James flight:] " The ratio of students to staff is far too high. The understaffing obviously has many evil reactions, not. the least being those upon the inspirational nature of the teacher, the individual contact between professor and student, and the possibility of research, a main function of the University. To take a typical example : at Leeds (a normal British provincial University) I had to lecture less than half the number of houis a week I did here at Canterbury and to classes the largest of which was only a fourth the size of my largest class here. This difference was due immediately to the provision of more associates or assistant lecturers at Leeds, but fundamentally to a proper appreciation in England of the real nature and conditions of university work. The standard of professorial salary also has been raised since 1926 in all the New Zealand colleges. But this has been done unequally, and the maximum annual salary paid in the arts and science departments differs as much as £200 between two colleges (Canterbury and Victoria). With a few slight changes, the statements contained in the pamphlet entitled ' Some Aspects of University Teaching in New Zealand ' (which I hand in) still hold good. (A corrected copy will be sent.) Finance : Ido not think it can be gainsaid by any one surveying the history of the University colleges of New Zealand that any very serious attempt has been made to provide a system whereby they shall be placed on a sound permanent financial basis, implying means for securing the capital funds and revenue which shall be both certain and adequate for (a) maintenance, and (b) development in the near future." I would like to ask whether you, as a member of the University College Teachers' Association, agree with that ? Professor Hunter: Yes. When it was proposed to cut away the University grant I took out figures for the Welsh universities, and the Canadian State universities, and I think you will find that, generally speaking, while the revenue per student attending those universities is somewhat about £100, in New Zealand it is only about £30. What has happened in New Zealand is that the whole position has been reversed. In the early days, when I started teaching, the large classes were in the primary schools and the small classes were in the universities. The position has now been reversed— the small classes are in the primary schools and the large classes are in the universities. I have a class of 150 this year, for example. Hon. Mr. Atmore: You cannot do justice to the students ? Professor Hunter : No. In an American university, however many a professor may lecture to, there is one professor for every 30 students. That is bound up with the problem of the student having his whole time to avail himself of the increased staff. We might go on and provide a staff on the lines of other universities, and libraries on the lines of those provided in other universities, but if our students have not the time to avail themselves of the facilities we should be piling up unnecessary costs. But at the present time we certainly cannot adequately deal with present conditions. Hon. Mr. Atmore : I have before me a copy of an article which you contributed to the Wellington Evening Post on the Ist August, 1928, in which you stated : — " Iti two fundamental respects —finance and numerical strength of teaching staff —our University colleges fall far short of the standards set not by the rich corporations of the United States and of the old world, but by the State universities of Canada and the colleges of the small principality of Wales. To-day neither in the primary schools nor secondary schools would classes of 100 to 150 be tolerated for a moment, but they are not uncommon in the University where individual treatment is a necessity if the institution is to perform its primary functions with any measure of success. The average annual revenue of the Canadian State universities per student is £86, in Wales it is £98 ; in New Zealand £36. The Welsh colleges serving 2,902 students have an annual revenue of £286,976. The New Zealand colleges serving 4,362 students have an annual revenue of £158,324. The recent University Commission in New Zealand pointed out how necessary it was to place the finances of the colleges on a basis that would be considered adequate for even the poorest institution doing University work. So far, the only result of the work of the Commission has been the introduction of a new constitution for the Council and the Academic Board, and the setting-up of a federal type of university and an Entrance Board. Those changes all mean some increase of expenditure for the University, though not for the colleges. As far as the finances of the backbone of the University —the teaching colleges—are concerned, nothing has been done, though, as can be easily seen from the above figures, the question of finance is a most urgent one if New Zealand is not to remain outside the band of those countries that feel in full measure their responsibilities for university education. . . Are the people of New Zealand prepared to allow the present unsatisfactory condition of affairs to continue ? " Are the above still your views ? Professor Hunter : That was written in view of the suggestion that the finances of the University should be reduced. It is difficult to get absolute comparative figures, but the actual figures place New Zealand in a better light than they really are. Hon. Mr. Atmore: You are substantially of the same opinion now ? Professor Hunter: Yes. Hon. Mr. Atmore : We also had evidence from Sir Thomas Sidey [then Mr. Sidey], the Chancellor, to the effect that the salaries paid to professors are quite inadequate, and I believe the Hon. Mr. Hanan, in his opening address, also called attention to the unsatisfactory emoluments of the teaching staff, and the undue size of the classes. Is that view generally accepted ?
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Professor Hunter : Yes, I think you have a very clear ease there. I believe it is true to-day, and it can be borne out by a comparison between the salaries of professors to-day and those originally paid. In Otago University I doubt whether the salary at the present time, and taking the present conditions into account, is one-half of what it was formerly. lam regarding it from the point of view of the purchasing power of money and the present conditions. The original professors came out at a salary of £600, with a free house, a pension of £300 a year with no contribution, and the right to fees. Ido not suggest that I agree with the principle of paying professors fees —in fact, Ido not agree with it. But still, that was the system, and it is quite clear that in some of those cases where in later years the Chairs were worth £1,200 or £1,300 a year, under present values they should be valued higher. Hon. Mr. Atmore: The University Teachers' Association's pamphlet states that from £25,000 to £35,000 would be required to put the salaries on a proper basis. I take it from your article in the Evening Post you would agree with that ? Professor Hunter : Yes, if you are going to increase the staffing. [Professor Hunter then cited a case in which a University college advertised a professorship in England at £900 per annum, without attracting any applicants whom the Home advisory committee could recommend, and continued :] At the present time, in respect of a certain number of chairs, at the salaries we have been offering we do not get what I call a fair selection of applicants —nothing like the applicants we got thirty years ago. Hon. Mr. Atmore : Your inadequate funds will not allow you to buy the best ? Professor Hunter : That is so, and we are also much hampered by the pension system. Hon. Mr. Atmore : With reference to the admittedly inadequate libraries, how much money, in your opinion, would be required, first, to bring them up to date, and, secondly, to keep them abreast of the libraries with which Dr. Hight has compared them ? Professor Hunter : That is rather a big question to answer ofE-hand. The Board went into that question, and we reckoned that the minimum capital expenditure would be £20,000. With regard to revenue, lam not in a position to know the position in the other colleges. Victoria College started much later than the others, and has more leeway to make up, but relatively to its finances it did more. More recently the other colleges have been more interested in the library question, so that in some instances our library may be better than the others, but it is still inadequate for the number of our students. We will go into the matter and supply you with figures. Hon. Mr. Atmore : Have you any suggestion to make as to where the necessary funds are to come from ? Professor Hunter : The University authorities have not considered that aspect, but my own feeling is that we are dealing quite wrongly with our proceeds from death duties. We are dealing with death duties as revenue, when they are really capital. I believe that some part of the death duties might be set aside as an endowment for University education over a period of years. They become a fairly regular source of income, and they increase, roughly speaking, with the wealth of the country. I believe some countries have adopted that method of putting aside a percentage of the death duties — not for revenue purposes, but for capital account. I think that is where our Universities are defective, and I think the departure made some time ago of endeavouring to build up our endowments is a good one. Hon. Mr. Atmore: In your opinion the University should have a capital fund, the interest from which would enable it to carry on its work without being dependent on annua-l grants ? Professor Hunter : Yes. Hon. Mr. Atmore : My reason for asking it is because you have made some suggestions as to reorganization in connection with the University colleges of New Zealand, and as you have been confronted with the inadequacy of the libraries no doubt you have considered the question of where the money can be obtained—whether it should be by means of a direct grant out of annual revenue or, as you suggest, from death duties ? Professor Hunter : No, the question is quite fair ; but the answer is very difficult. I would like to think it over. You have referred to the question of reorganization of the colleges. I am, as you are probably aware, Vice-Chancellor of the New Zealand University. Hon. Mr. Atmore : Therefore you would have considered the question more or less ? Professor Hunter : Yes, but my views may not agree with those of the Council. I was one of the people who started the University reform organization. The attitude we adopted was that we advocated four University colleges with limited charters, and we asked the Government for a Royal Commission. I personally feel bound by the decision of the Commission. We ajipealed to Cassar and we have the decision. I have not altered my opinion. Hon. Mr. Atmore : There may be another Caesar ? Professor Hunter : Yes, but I can speak only for myself before the new Csesar ; I do not want to be understood as speaking for the University. Speaking for myself, I should say that there is better prospect now for two universities, a North Island and a South Island University than for four universities. Hon. Mr. Atmore: And do you think that would be a full or a partial solution ? Professor Hunter : I think it would be the best solution at, the present time. I say that, because I think it will be a long time before New Zealand can support four fully equipped universities. Now that the problem of agriculture has been settled, it would mean in the North Island co-operation between the three colleges, and it would mean the same in the South Island. It would solve the question of administrative difficulties, cut down running expenses, and provide for an internal system
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of examination, using the professors of the South Island University to examine the students of the North Island, and vice versa. It would save the sending of papers Home to England, which has become a very difficult matter. My own feeling is that it would be better now to advocate two universities. Twenty years ago I advocated one, but conditions are altering, and Ido not think it is feasible to suggest that now. I think we might now aim at two. I believe that two might help to tide us over the next twenty or thirty years until we are in a better position. lion. Mr. Atmore: You are familiar with the facts concerning the endowment known as the Opaku Reserve ? Professor Hunter: Yes. Hon. Mr. Atmore: You understand that the Committee has recommended the abolition of the existing scholarship system. Would you be in favour of this endowment being nationalized and the accumulated and current revenues being devoted to improving the libraries and salaries of the North Island University colleges ? Professor Hunter: I would be quite willing personally that the endowment should be used for a national purpose. lam quite opposed to its present purpose. Whether it should go to the whole of the North Island colleges or go to Victoria and Massey Colleges is another point. I think that is open for discussion, but I should imagine that would have to be decided by the legal authorities. Hon. Mr. Atmore: And, of course, the original intention has been, and could again be, altered ? Professor Hunter: Yes. Hon. Mr. Atmore: If the Committee decided to recommend that all the University colleges should be put on a fair footing, this would mean that it would only be a portion ? Professor Hunter : Yes. Hon. Mr. Atmore : With regard to the book entitled " University Reform in New Zealand," issued in 1911 by the University Reform Association, you appear to have been the honorary secretary of that Association ? Professor Hunter: Yes. Hon. Mr. Atmore: Among other things, the association urged that the external examination system should be changed to an internal examining one. That change, I understand, is now being brought about ? Professor Hunter : Yes, gradually. Hon. Mr. Atmore: In so far as it has been brought about, does it mean that a professor, after examining his students formally on behalf of his college, will then re-examine them with the help of an outside examiner on behalf of the New Zealand University ? Professor Hunter : It may or it may not. It depends on the system, in the college. Before a man can sit for a University examination he has got to keep terms —that is, to satisfy his professor. Under that system it was compulsory to hold an examination in October, and the University examination was held in November. At that time all the papers went Home to England, but now in many colleges terms are given on the whole year's work. There is no formal examination. I doubt whether there are any classes, or very many at any rate, in Victoria College which have an examination at the end of the year. So that really there is not a double examination. But there may be. Hon. Mr. Atmore : Do you think such a second examination really necessary ? Professor Hunter : Do you mean the University examination % Hon. Mr. Atmore : Yes. Professor Hunter: That is absolutely necessary under the present conditions, because the University confers the degree. Hon. Mr. Atmore: But do you think arrangements could be made under which it would not be necessary for the second examination ? Professor Hunter : I think under the present conditions the first examination is not necessary. Hon. Mr. Atmore: You think that one examination would be sufficient ? Professor Hunter: Quite. We do not have anything else at Victoria College. Hon. Mr. Atmore : It has frequently been urged that the New Zealand University could be dispensed with and its revenues divided among the four University colleges, each of which might be given a limited charter to grant its own degrees. I understand that that is Dr. Hight's view. What is your opinion upon such a proposal ? Professor Hunter: That was my opinion. Hon. Mr. Atmore : And is it still ? Professor Hunter : No, not under the changed conditions. When that proposal was put forward there was no Massey College and no Lincoln College. I think the establishment of those two colleges has altered the whole situation. We are now faced with six colleges. lam rather inclined, in view of the present situation, to urge the establishment of a North Island and a South Island University. Hon. Mr. Atmore : What would be the position of the Massey and Canterbury Agricultural Colleges under such a scheme —would it not necessarily entail six universities of limited charter ? Professor Hunter: I think so. Hon. Mr. Atmore: I understand that the accumulated funds of the New Zealand University amount to approximately £70,000 and that its annual revenue includes, roughly, £4,000 from public endowments, £4,000 from interest on investments, £3,800 from the statutory grant, and £27,000 from examination fees. Is that approximately the position ? Professor Hunter : I think that is substantially correct. With regard to the £70,000 : there is an impression abroad that the University is accumulating money, and therefore is not in need of funds. But if the University had 'not practised economy as it has, the position would be different. And I think great credit is due to the late Professor Shand, of Dunedin, in that connection. He was a very careful administrator, and any accumulated funds we have have been put into a fund, from which 5*
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scholarships are being partly paid. We have not sufficient money to pay the scholarships in full, and it is admitted that in New Zealand our scholarships are not as numerous as in other countries, and they are not as valuable. We find, for example, that in a few of the post-graduate scholarships we have we shall have to raise the values. We have students at Home who are doing really good work, but they are in a continually anxious frame of mind about their financial position, and that affects their work, and forces them to live under most unsuitable conditions for study. The money I refer to has been accumulated gradually and put into a fund for the payment of these scholarships. If that had not been done we should have been compelled to go to the Government for assistance. It is one of the real difficulties of administration of education in this country. A body which administers carefully and economically and succeeds in saving money is regarded as having more money than it requires. On the other hand, a body which is not so economical and relies on an overdraft is regarded as one which requires financial assistance. The whole thing should be regarded on the basis of the things required and the way in which the funds are administered. At the present time it takes the whole of the revenue from our accumulated fund to meet even our small scholarships. The accumulated fund is now invested in Government securities, and the proceeds, together with half the Government grant, £1,500, are always put to the Scholarship Account to pay the scholarships. Hon. Mr. Atmore: Then if to that we add the resources available from nationalizing the Opaku Reserve Endowment, the annual income from which I understand is over £2,000, there would really seem to be obtainable an accumulated fund of, roughly, £95,000, and an annual revenue of, roughly, £13,000, apart from the possibility of securing to the State the benefit of the other revenue of the University ? These sums would go a long way towards improving the position as to staffing and libraries in the University colleges, would they not ? Professor Hunter: You are envisaging now doing away with the University and starting individual universities ? Hon. Mr. Atmore: Yes. Professor Hunter : But there will be other expenses, of course. That amount of money, however, would, of course, be available. But I take it those colleges would still have to give scholarships ? Hon. Mr. Atmore : If you will deal with that portion of the statement we would be pleased to have your opinion ? Professor Hunter : Yes, we will do that. Of course, we could save money by cutting off the scholarships. With regard to the £70,000 accumulated, it is not available as ordinary revenue— it is earmarked for scholarships. If you do away with all scholarships it would ease the position, but I am not in favour of that. Hon. Mr. Atmore : If the State cannot find the money elsewhere —and you are aware of the present difficulties in this respect —would you say that these large sums would be better spent upon re-examining the students, or upon improving the staffing and libraries of the teaching colleges, which you have called " the real backbone of the university " ? Professor Hunter: Ido not think that is the alternative. Hon. Mr. Atmore: But if it were the alternative ? Professor Hunter : Well then, of course, there is no doubt about it. But the position is that if you have the two universities there would still be costs of examining, unless we adopt the Victorian or Sydney scheme, under which the professors examine their own students. Hon. Mr. Atmore: What do you think of that yourself ? Professor Hunter: lam in favour of the system of examination with an assessor. I think it is desirable from the point of view of the public. Particularly it is necessary in a country where you are going from a purely external to a purely internal examination, and the practice of all the newer hlnglish universities shows the advantage of having an assessor. But you will still have the cost of the examination. There is another point which will arise—that is, whether these two universities will be compelled, as the New Zealand University is being compelled, to conduct examinations all over the country —that is, if we are still going to have the external system. A good deal of the expense of examining in New Zealand is caused through the fact that we do not examine only in the four centres. There are students doing University work who do not attend the University colleges, and the University provides examination centres for them. That is where the cost comes in. But I think there would be a great outcry against discontinuing it. Professor Rankine Brown : Generally speaking, I agree with the evidence given by Professor Hunter. I have listened to it very carefully, and I should say that it is quite accurate. lam prepared to support it. Hon. Mr. Atmore: You heard the questions I put to Professor Hunter ? Professor Rankine Brown : Yes ; I should answer them in much the same way as Professor Hunter answered them. There is one point I would comment on. Professor Hunter referred to the possibility of two universities instead of four. That is more or less novel to me. It is a question which I suppose would have to be thrashed out. If we had two universities, each consisting of two colleges—I am leaving out of consideration for the moment the agricultural colleges—instead of the present University with four colleges, some of our difficulties would be solved. It is easier for two colleges to combine in a programme which would suit them both than it would be for four to combine. There are great difficulties under the present federal system. It appears, then, to the Committee that the Royal Commission of 1925 impaled itself upon the horns of the dilemna with which it was faced—that of " four Universities or one "-—without making any apparent effort to explore what, to a Committee
Royal Commission of 1925,
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of laymen, would seem to have been a very obvious line of investigation — viz., the middle course, two. This is all the more strange when it is realized that the [Hon. Sir] Maurice O'Rorke, Chairman of the Royal Commission of 1879, the findings of which met with unqualified approval by its successor of 1925, had himself proposed this solution of the University problem in 1872 when the question was first under consideration, he having in that year succeeded in getting a Bill passed by the House of Representatives providing for separate Universities for the two Islands, only to have it thrown out by the Legislative Council. Defeated in that purpose, he then advocated the system outlined in the Commission's report of 1879. It is of especial interest to record the fact that the present Chancellor of the New Zealand University, Professor J. Macmillan Brown, M.A., Litt.D., was a member of that Commission ; and the Committee greatly regretted that owing to his absence in England it was unable to obtain evidence from him upon these matters. After the most careful investigation and consideration, the Committee came to the unanimous conclusion that a clear case for a fundamental reorganization of the New Zealand University system had been disclosed. On the one hand, it found that the University teaching colleges were starved for library and research, facilities, and seriously understaffed, especially in the arts and science classes ; yet, on the other hand, in the case of the special schools, such as engineering and forestry, they were engaged in open and expensive competition of a nature which could not be considered other than inimical to the economical and efficient development of these branches of education in the Dominion. Over all the Committee found the New Zealand University with apparently no other function than that of conducting formal degree, scholarship, and matriculation examinations, which the Committee felt could be otherwise satisfactorily provided for, or altogether omitted without materially impairing the efficiency of the teaching institutions. It was quite clear to the Committee that it was impossible to look to the State at the present time for further money with which to provide the undeniably necessary library and staffing additions for the colleges. The Committee was constrained, therefore, to weigh in the balances the comparative importance of these as against the continuance of the present examination system conducted by the New Zealand University, the financial position of which is clearly set out in the following tables : — Extract prom Report on the Finances op the University op New Zealand and its Constituent Colleges, by Messrs. A. Bell, M.A., Assistant Director op Education, and T. A. Barrow, Inspecting Accountant, Education Department. The University of New Zealand is in a strong financial position if its functions are to be confined practically to that of an examining body. Its accumulated funds at the 31st December, 1927, amounted to £45,543 set aside as an endowment for ordinary University scholarships, £8,790 for special scholarships, and a balance of £17,042 in its General Account, or a total of £71,375. In 1910 the total funds amounted to £30,135, so that there has been an increase of £41,240 in the past seventeen years. For the year 1927 the general income of the University, apart from subsidies and contributions, was as follows : — £ Interest on investments .. .. .. .. .. 4,074 Examination and other fees .. .. .. .. .. 27,225 Statutory grant .. .. .. .. .. .. 3,845 Total .. .. • .. .. £35,144 The expenditure was — £ Cost of administration, &c. .. .. .. .. 7,925 Examination expenses .. .. .. .. .. 17,552 Scholarships .. .. .. .. .. .. 5,375 Surplus income .. .. .. .. .. .. 4,292 Total £35,144
Royal Commission of 1879.
Reorganization essential.
Finances of New Zealand University and University Colleges.
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Return prepared by the Education Department regarding the Revenue of the New Zealand University and the Four Constituent Colleges. (a) Revenue or New Zealand University and the University Colleges received from or THROUGH THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OTHER THAN FOR BUILDINGS, FOR YEAR ENDING 31st December, 1928. University of New Zealand— £ £ Statutory grant .. it .. .. .. 3,845 *National endowment .. .. .. .. .. 4,521 University National Scholarships. > ;. ;. .. 2,030 National Research Scholarships .. <. .. *. 50 ——- 10,446 Auckland University College-— Statutory grants ~ .. .. .. .. 12,025 National endowment .. .. .. .. .. 2,260 Grant for salary, Professor of Education .. .. .. 850 Subsidies .. .. .. .. .. 2,253 Grant— School of Architecture .. .. .. .. 938 School of Forestry .. .. .. .. .. 1,000 Workers' Educational Association .. .. .. 750 Capitation—School of Engineering .. .. .. 350 —— 20,426 Victoria University College' — Statuory grants .. .. .. .. .. 11,675 Grant for salary —Professor of Education .. .. .. 850 National endowment .. .. ... .. .. 2,260 Subsidies .. .. .. .. .. .. 558 Grant — Workers' Educational Association .. .. .. 750 Sir Walter Buchanan Fund .. .. .. .. 500 — 16,593 Canterbury College— Statutory grants .. .. .. .. .. 1,600 Capitation—Commerce Classes .. .. .. .. 100 Salary—Professor of Education .. .. .. .. 850 National endowment .. .. .. .. .. 2,260 Subsidies .. .. .. .. .. .. 2,709 n*t School of Forestry .. .. .. .. .. 1,188 School of Engineering .. .. .. .. 4,762 Workers' Educational Association .. .. .. 750 14,219 University of Otago— Statutory grants .. .. . . .. .. 3,890 Grant for salary —Professor of Education .. .. .. 850 Capitation—Commerce Classes .. .. .. .. 150 National endowment .. .. .. .. .. 2,260 Grants— Dental School .. .. . . .. .. 1,284 Home Science School .. .. .. .. 2,931 Medical School .. .. .. .. .. 6,167 Mining School .. .. .. .. .. 342 Workers' Educational Association .. .. .. 750 Subsidies .. .. .. .. .. 7,046 Grant— Pollen Research .. .. .. .. .. 500 Infant Welfare Research .. .. .. " .. 50 26,220 Total.. .. .. .. .. £87,904 * This is paid to the constituent colleges. Notes. —(1) As provided in the New Zealand University Act, 1928, the annual statutory grants to the constituent colleges are now as follows : Auckland, £13,750 ; Victoria, £11,750 ; Canterbury, £6,000 ; Otago, £15,350. (2) The amount shown above as paid to the New Zealand University on account of* nationalendowment revenue is redistributed to the constituent colleges by the University, and appears under section (b) following as receipts by these colleges. (3) In addition to the amounts shown above as paid to the New Zealand University or to the colleges by the Department, there are the amounts shown under section (d) following as paid on account of scholarships and bursaries.
Revenue received from or through Education Department.
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(b) Revenue op New Zealand University from Interest on Accumulated Funds, and of University Colleges from Public and other Endowments locally administered. University of New Zealand— £ £ General Account—lnterest Post Office Savings-bank .. 165 Interest on investmentsOrdinary Scholarship Account .. .. .. 2,995 Special scholarship funds .. .. .. .. 486 3,646 Auckland University College— Endowment revenue .. .. .. .. .. 1,976 Interest from endowment royalties investment .. .. 39 Interest on depreciation and Endowment Fund investments .. 384 Interest on revenue investments .. .. .. .. 78 Workers' Educational Association—lnterest, Post Office Savings-bank .. . . .. .. .. 10 National-endowment revenue from New Zealand University 1,129 Special scholarship funds —Interest .. .. .. 2,272 5,888 Victoria University CollegeRent of reserves .. .. .. .. .. 42 Interest — General Account .. .. .. .. .. 327 T. G. Macarthy Account .. .. .. .. 548 National-endowment revenue .. .. .. .. 1,129 Special scholarship funds —Income .. .. .. 2,702 ' 4,748 Canterbury College— Rent of reserves .. .. .. .. .. 14,805 House-rents .. .. .. .. .. .. 138 T. W. Adams —School of Forestry—• Rent .. .. .. .. .. .. 159 Interest .. .. .. .. .. .. 109 Interest— Students' Loan Fund .. .. .. .. 38 Students' Union Building Fund . . .. .. 142 Various scholarship funds .. .. .. .. 1,069 School of Engineering .. .. .. .. 27 Workers' Educational Association .. .. .. 28 Medical School reserves .. .. .. .. 56 Rent —Medical School reserves .. .. .. .. 1,859 National-endowment revenue .. .. .. .. 1,129 19,559 University of Otago— Rent of reserves .. .. .. .. .. 7,858 Interest on investments.. .. .. .. .. 1,811 Grants from Hospital Board .. .. .. .. 1,500 Grant from Mines Department .. .. .. .. 750 Grant from Dunedin City Corporation .. .. .. 200 Interest —Beverley Trust Account .. .. .. 479 Rents —Beverley Trust Account .. .. .. 1,232 Interest —• Training Corps Hall Trust .. . . .. .. 13 Workers' Educational Association Investment Account .. 13 Sundry scholarship accounts.. .. .. ... 2, 409 Sundry special endowments .. .. .. .. 3,793 National-endowment revenue .. .. .. .. 1,129 21,187 Total.. £55,028 (c) Revenue of New Zealand University and Universiry Colleges from Students' Fees (Examination Fees, College Fees, and Degree I ees included). University of New Zealand — £ £ Admission ad eundem .. .. • • • • • • 71 Degree fees .. .. . • • • • • • • 1 > 938 Certificates .. .. • • • • • ■ • • 330 Examination fees .. .. • • - - .. 25, 964 Recount fees .. .. • • • • • ■ • • 186 Medical and dental registration fees .. .. .. 215 28,704
Revenue from interest or endowments locally administered.
Revenue from students' fees.
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72
(c) Revenue of New Zealand University and University Colleges from Students' Fees (Examination Fees, College Fees, and Degree Fees included) —continued. £ £ Brought forward .. .. .. .. 28,704 Auckland University College— Tuition fees .. .. .. .. .. .. 12,667 College fees .. .. .. .. .. .. 1,298 Sundry fees .. .. .. .. .. .. 659 14,624 Victoria University College— Students'fees .. .. .. .. .. .. 10,158 Examination fees .. .. .. .. .. 622 Fees for nurses .. .. .. .. .. 71 10,851 Canterbury College— Students' fees .. .. .. .. .. .. 12,881 Sundry fees .. .. .. .. .. .. 16 Boarding fees —• Rolleston House .. .. .. • .. .. 3,742 Helen Common Hall .. .. .. .. 1,511 — 18,150 University of Otago — Students'fees .. .. .. .. .. .. 22,827 Boarding fees —Studholme House .. .. .. 2,219 Chemistry-apparatus fees .. .. .. .. 180 25,226 Total.. .. .. .. .. £97,555 (d) Cost of Educational Bursaries for Higher Education (including Training-college, Engineering, Agricultural, and other Bursaries). Amounts paid by Education Department for year ending 31st March, 1929' — £ £ Agricultural Scholarships .. .. .. .. 164 Sir George Grey Scholarships .. .. .. .. 200 National Research Scholarships .. .. .. .. 50 Bursaries — University .. .. .. .. .. 15,704 Educational .. .. .. .. .. 812 Agricultural .. .. .. .. .. 942 Home-science .. .. .. .. .. 4,074 Engineering .. .. .. .. .. 1,138 Special assistance to deserving students .. .. 120 University fees of training-college students .. .. 6,136 Dental bursaries .. .. .. .. 150 29,490 Total.. .. .. £29,490 (e) Amount expended on University Scholarships awarded by the New Zealand University to Undergraduates and Graduates (excluding University National and University Junior Scholarships). £ £ Senior University .. .. .. .. .. 1,331 Engineering .. .. .. .. .. .. 75 Post-graduate in Art .. .. .. .. . . 1,100 Post-graduate in Science .. .. .. .. .. 400 French Travelling .. .. .. .. .. .. 200 Law Travelling . . .. .. .. .. .. 200 Medical Travelling .. .. .. .. . . .. 100 Tinline Scholarship.. .. .. .. .. .. 70 3,476 Total.. .. .. .. .. £3,476 It is clear from the above tables—(l) that the University of New Zealand in the year quoted had a surplus of £4,292, or £447 more than the statutory grant for the year; (2) that it consumed in administrative expenses a slightly larger sum than its combined revenue from the interest on its accumulated funds and the statutory grant; and (3) that if it were disestablished this sum, approximately
Cost of bursaries for higher education.
Cost of university scholarships.
I.—§A
73
£8,000, would be available for genuinely educational purposes. The Committee is therefore of opinion that the present statutory grant of £3,845 made to the New Zealand University, and thus seen to be in effect consumed in administrative costs, together with such addition as may be necessary, be paid to the two Universities which it is recommended should be set up, and earmarked for the purposes of ordinary University scholarships, which it desires to see maintained and extended. This will leave the accumulated fund of approximately £70,000, together with the annual interest thereon (approximately £4,000), free for other purposes. Of this capital the Committee recommends that, upon the proposed reorganization being effected, the sum of £20,000 (which is the amount stated by Professor Hunter to be necessary for that purpose) be made available immediately for the purpose of bringing the University college libraries up to date and putting them on an adequate basis as compared with those of other similar Universities ; and that the balance—viz., £50,000, approximately—be set aside as a permanent endowment for their maintenance. The Committee believes that by this means the present reproach of our inadequate library and research facilities may be to a very large extent removed, and our professors, lecturers, and students placed in a reasonably equivalent position with those overseas. The Committee noted that the income from examination and other students' fees (£27,225) exceeded the examination expenses (£17,552) by approximately £10,000. A considerable part of this profit, the Committee understands, is derived from the conduct of the Matriculation Examination, which, together with the University Entrance Scholarship Examination, the Committee believes to have exercised a baneful influence upon secondary education in New Zealand. Its recommendations for the replacement of the competitive academic scholarships by a system of maintenance busaries to be allocated to deserving students by the District Education Boards will rectify this as far as the latter examination is concerned. Its recommendations with regard to the Matriculation Examination, which will both confine it to genuine candidates for entry into the University colleges, and at the same time set it upon a broader and more modern basis, will be found in Chapter XV of this section of the report. With regard to the degree examinations, the Committee is strongly impressed with the fact that in almost all overseas Universities of standing, including all the Australian universities, it is considered sufficient for a pass if the student satisfies his professor in respect of his year's work ; and the Committee fails to see why New Zealand students should be subjected to the added mental and financial strain of a further formal examination for this purpose. It sees no objection to any reciprocal arrangement that might be made as between the professorial staffs of the North and South Island Universities by which each should assist the other in assessing the value of their students' work ; but considers that as regards the students the one test should be sufficient, and that as regards the professorial staffs such mutual assistance, if considered necessary, should be included as part of the regular duties of their position —in other words, it should be undertaken without added emolument being sought. With the revised scale of staffing and salaries which the Committee recommends should be adopted, the professors and lecturers will have smaller classes and better average salaries, and consequently will be quite able to assist one another in this way if desired. With the elimination of the second examination, which is the one at present conducted by the New Zealand University, and the other provisions made to take the 1 place of the present Scholarship and Matriculation Examinations, it is clear that the raison d'etre of the New Zealand University will have disappeared, and at the same time the University students will have been relieved of what is, in the aggregate, the heavy financial burden of the present New Zealand University examination fees. The Committee noted with special interest the fact that the receipts of the New Zealand University from these fees in 1928 (£25,987) were only about £1,000 less than the total sum spent by the State in awarding bursaries and studentships for free University education for that year, and set about to explore the possibility of securing for the State the financial benefit of the abolition of the second examination. It is clear that as regards the present bursary holders a reduction in the amount of each individual bursary equal to the amount of the second examination
Statutory grant to maintain scholarships.
University college libraries.
Income from students' fees.
Internal degree examinations favoured.
Effect of suggested changes.
I.— Ba,
74
fee would leave the student in exactly the same position financially ; and, as these number approximately half the number of matriculated students of the University colleges, the State would in this way benefit to the extent of something approaching half the fees of the omitted second examination, which would be available for improving the staffing of the colleges. It is difficult to estimate exactly what this amount might be, but the Committee considers that as much as £10,000 might become available from this source. But this is not, in the Committee's opinion, the best way of dealing with the problem ; for it is clear that to the extent of the second examination fees the expense of a University course will be reduced for the 50 per cent, of students who pay fees, as well as for the bursary-holders, and this aggregate saving also the Committee desires to secure for the same purpose of improving staffing conditions, from which all students will, it is convinced, obtain immeasurable benefits. Partly with this object, and partly for other reasons therein set out, it has in Chapter XVI of this section of the report made certain recommendations with regard to a new system of rendering financial assistance to deserving matriculated students in connection with their University education, as a result of which it believes that the whole of the financial benefit of the abolition of the second examination will be available, with immense benefit to the students themselves, for improving staffing conditions. Dr. Eight's estimate of the amount necessary for this purpose was approximately £25,000 per annum. From the sources indicated, and from the total annual income of the Opaku Reserve endowment, including the interest on the accumulated funds thereof (approximately £2,000 per annum), the Committee considers that, if its recommendations are given effect, sufficient money will become available to meet the requirements without the necessity of placing any additional financial burden on the State. With regard to the Opaku Reserve, full information with reference to which was made available by the Hon. the Minister of Education, the Committee found that in pursuance of an Act of the General Assembly in 1868 there were set aside as national endowments for a colonial university five reserves of approximately 10,000 acres each, of which three were in the Auckland district (including one in the Waikato), one in Taranaki, and one in Southland. Following the settlement of the form of the New Zealand University by the Act of 1874, the Southland reserve became part of the endowments of the University of Otago, and as such has since been nationalized in effect by reason of the fact that endowment revenues are taken into account in the allocation of State grants to the four University colleges. When the Auckland University College was established by the Act of 1882 the same course was adopted there, and all three reserves, including that in the Waikato, became, through their apportionment to this college, nationalized for the purpose for which they were originally set apart —viz., University education. Owing, however, to the later establishment of the Victoria University College, which was not founded until 1897, the Taranaki endowment lay unallotted for over thirty years, until in 1905, in fulfilment of a promise given by the Right Hon. R. J. Seddon, it was by special Act of Parliament earmarked for the purpose of providing University scholarships for pupils of Taranaki secondary schools alone. In view of these circumstances and of the fact that the recommendations made by the Committee provide for the replacement of the school-scholarship system by one of maintenance bursaries, under which the Taranaki Education District will receive its due share of the bursary fund for the purpose of providing financial assistance for deserving students desirous of proceeding to the University, the Committee has no hesitation in recommending that this endowment be resumed for the purpose for which it was originally dedicated—i.e., national University education —and that it be devoted to the purposes set out above. The Committee is further of the opinion that the time has arrived when a full investigation into the value and use of all public educational endowments should be undertaken in order to ascertain whether greater national benefit can be derived therefrom, and has recommended accordingly. With regard to the constitution of the Universities of Northern and Southern New Zealand, which the Committee recommends should be established, the Committee is of opinion that complete freedom should be given to the constituent institutions to set up their own form of control, the administrative cost of which thev
Money available to improve stalling.
Opaku endowment to be devoted to its original purpose.
Investigation to be made regarding all public educational endowments.
Two Universities recommended.
75
I.—g£
will be required to divide amongst themselves. As the present internal examinations of the University colleges are recommended for acceptance for degree purposes (with or without reciprocal assessment as set out above), the administrative expenditure of the joint Council of each University should be small, and there will, moreover, be every incentive to economy. The initial basis of the organization of the two Universities will be the mutual recognition of the special schools and general courses at present existing and approved for degree purposes by the New Zealand University ; and the Committee is of opinion that, upon the proposed reorganization and reforms being effected, applications should be made to His Majesty the King for a limited charter for each University in order that all the degrees granted may obtain recognition throughout His Majesty's Dominions. In order to safeguard the State against the premature expansion of existing schools or establishment of new ones the Committee has recommended that the provisions of the existing New Zealand University Act be incorporated in the statute governing the new institutions. In order to equalize the conditions in both Universities with regard to staffing and salaries it is recommended that a uniform scale be drawn up and that the Government should pay directly to the staffs the amounts due thereunder. The Committee is of opinion that this course will result in administrative saving without in any way impairing the complete autonomy of the Universities and University colleges, which it considers to be absolutely essential to University organization and work. The appointment of professors, lecturers, and other members of staff, and the full control of courses of instruction, &c., are, in the opinion of the Committee, matters upon which the interference of the State would be fatal to the best interests of the Universities. The Committee is convinced that by unification of control within each Island of all institutions providing higher education greater co-ordination and efficiency will be secured, and much duplication of effort and friction will be obviated. Bach University Council will be in a position within its own district to consolidate and co-ordinate schools and classes, while over all Parliament will have retained for the State, through the responsible Minister, the power of safeguarding national interests against encroachment. With regard to the inclusion of the research institutions such as the Cawthron Institute, Nelson, and the Dairy Research Institute associated with the Massey Agricultural College at Palmerston North, the Committee desires to make it clear that this is intended to be for the purpose of post-graduate research work purely, and that on no account should any teaching work be undertaken or permitted at these institutions. It is thought, however, that duly approved graduates, accredited to the research staffs of such institutions for a specified period and for the express purpose of pursuing approved investigations, would render as well as derive benefit by their association therewith. In order to ensure the fullest co-ordination between these institutions and the teaching colleges within the two Universities the Committee recommends that the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research should be brought under the same Ministerial control as the Department of Education ; and in order further to stimulate research work on the part of students it is recommended that such work should be an essential condition of the award and acceptance of all University scholarships. Finally, with a view to the development of the Universities as full-time teaching institutions, certain recommendations have been made in this and in a later chapter for encouraging and assisting matriculated students to attend the University colleges, and for non-matriculated students and part-time students to be provided for, as far as is practicable, at the technical colleges. Thus, without calling upon the State to bear any additional financial burden, the Committee is of opinion that the middle course which the Royal Commission of 1925 overlooked, will afford, in accordance with the principles underlying the whole scheme of educational reorganization now proposed, the basis for a complete remedy for the ills which have been inherent in the existing New Zealand University system since it was first established.
Relation of research institutions to University.
Education and Research Departments should be under same Ministerial control.
I.—Ba.
76
The Committee therefore recommends--(13) That the New Zealand University be disestablished, and that its accumulated funds and annual revenue from State sources be made available for the improvement of libraries and staffing conditions at the University colleges in accordance with the scheme set out below (a) That the existing University colleges, agricultural colleges, research institutions, and teachers' training colleges be consolidated within each Island to form two self-contained universities. (b) That these universities be universities of limited charter with provision for reciprocity in recognition of degrees and diplomas and that they be empowered to arrange for joint examinations as may be found desirable. (c) That the governing body of each University be composed of representatives elected by each of the constituent institutions ; and that each institution should contribute a proportionate share of the expenses incurred by such governing body. (d) That in order to ensure the fullest co-ordination between research and teaching institutions within each University the Departments of Education and of Scientific and Industrial Research be placed under the same Ministerial control. (e) (i) That of the accumulated funds of the New Zealand University the sum of £20,000 be devoted to the immediate equipment of the University college libraries, and the remainder set apart as a permanent endowment for their maintenance. (ii) That the annual savings effected by the abolition of the present New Zealand University examinations and the reorganization of the bursary system as hereinafter provided for, be devoted to improving the staffing of the University colleges, particularly in the arts and science departments. (iii) That the endowment known as the Opaku Reserve be resumed as a national endowment for the benefit of the University of Northern New Zealand ; and that the revenue therefrom be devoted to the purposes set out in subclause above. (iv) That investigation be made into the value of all public educational endowments in New Zealand in order to ascertain whether greater benefit can be derived from them, and that the whole of the endowments be dealt with on a national basis. (j) That a uniform scale of staffing and salaries be adopted for all institutions comprised within the two Universities, and that all salaries of the teaching staffs be paid by the Government direct. (g) That as an initial basis of reorganization the Universities of Northern and Southern New Zealand be empowered to conduct courses and grant degrees in those subjects and schools for which their work is at present approved by the New Zealand University.
Recommendations,
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(/?) That provisions similar to those contained in the present New Zealand University Act be made for the purpose of safeguarding the national interests with respect to the establishment of new schools or the expansion of existing schools within University colleges. (i) With respect to the standard and nature of University entrance and degree examinations,— (i) That if and in so far as these are inferior to the standards of the best British universities they should as soon as possible be brought into line therewith. (ii) That as far as is practicable the examination system be an internal one, in which the class records of the candidates should be regarded as of equal weight with the results of any formal examinations held; and that all examinations, as far as is possible, should accordingly be conducted by New Zealand examiners. (iii) That, in accordance with the essential function of the universities as teaching and research, rather than degree-granting, institutions, every encouragment be offered, as recommended hereinafter, to enable matriculated students to attend full-time at the University colleges ; and that in order to prevent hardship close individual consideration be given to every application for exemption from such attendance, each case to be decided strictly upon its merits. (iv) That, in order to encourage research work on the part of students, conditions should be attached to all University scholarships requiring the holders to undertake approved research work and to present a report thereon.
CHAPTER XIII.—THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS. In the opinion of the Committee, there is probably no part of our educational organization so badly in need of consolidation and unification of control as that which relates to the training of teachers. Evidence submitted by the Director of Education, Chairmen of Education Boards, University College administrators and professors, Training College Principals, and representatives of the secondary, technical, and non-State schools all went to show that in this field perhaps more than in any other there exist unwarranted duplication of staffs and courses, want of co-operation, unconcealed friction, and manifest waste. On the other hand, with respect to a large and important section of the teaching service—that of the post-primary teachers, secondary and technical —it was apparent that no adequate system of specialized professional training as teachers is in existence at all. To begin with the Committee laid it down as an axiomatic basis for its consideration of the subject that every teacher should receive the best possible training for his or her work. The children of the nation are its greatest asset. To their care the present generation must shortly hand over the control of its destiny. As year by year the barriers between nations are lowered by the onward march of Scientific knowledge and invention, we owe it to the rising generation to see that
The present system.
The interest of the child paramount.
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the equipment we give them for the battle of life is in no way inferior to that of other English-speaking children overseas. This equipment they must obtain in the nation's schools, and the Committee, having recommended the establishment of compulsory intermediate schools of the types set out in Chapter Vof this report, does not wish them to fail in their objective by reason of inadequate or inefficient training of the teaching staffs. The Committee was seriously impressed with the following comment of Mr. Frank Tate upon this aspect of the matter in 1925 :— Extract prom the Report op Mr. Frank Tate, C.M.G., M.A., upon an Investigation into certain Aspects op Post-primary Education in New Zealand. One of the most hopeful and instructive advances in public education in New Zealand is the establishment of the Junior High School at Kowhai, a suburb of Auckland, to be followed, it is promised, by other such schools in other towns of the Dominion. So far as I know, New Zealand is the first country in Australasia to adopt the junior high school as a part of its school administration. The Australian States have developed many types of intermediate school, but they are not quite on the same basis of organization. The junior high school is an attempt to solve the very difficult problem of the transition period between the primary school on the one hand, and the secondary school, the technical school, and the world of work on the other. It covers also the important period of approach to puberty. It comes at an opportune moment, when the more general study of practical psychology, the development of intelligence tests, and schemes for the vocational guidance of early adolescents, are coming to the assistance of administrators and teachers. . . . One of its main functions should be to give pupils a broad outlook upon the world's work, and help them to ascertain their own aptitudes, interests, and abilities with reference thereto. Such an aim cannot be realized until there is a revolutionary change in the training of post-primary teachers, and until a new method and a new spirit are in evidence in these schools. That such a revolutionary change in the organization of teacher-training in New Zealand is in fact necessary the Committee is firmly convinced, and it is not prepared to see the whole success of its scheme of reorganization jeopardized by the continuance of the existing condition of affairs. The position may perhaps best be made clear by an examination of the principal points of contact between the existing training colleges and the rest of the education system. There is abundant evidence that the training colleges have been for many years a continual bone of contention between the Department of Education and the Education Boards of the four chief cities, and there is no doubt that their efficiency has been greatly impaired as a result. This state of affairs is directly due to a system of divided administrative control, which dates right back to the inauguration of the education system under the Education Act of 1877, and which has been a source of trouble ever since that time. It is the direct result of the unhappy marriage of provincialism and national interests of which that Act was the consummation and all the subsequent ills of the New Zealand education system are the offspring. Turning to the relationship between the training colleges and the University colleges, the Committee found what can only be described as a system of reciprocal duplication in existence. On the one hand, there appear to be provided at the training colleges a number of lecturers of standing and qualifications approximately equivalent to those of the corresponding University college lecturers, who deliver at the training colleges lectures in the same subjects as those taken at the University colleges—English, history, modern languages, science, &c. ; while, on the other hand, at the University colleges are Professors of Education and Philosophy who appear to give lectures in education and psychology covering much the same ground as those given by the Training College Principals and the Lecturers in Education in the latter institutions. The whole problem was fully investigated by the Reichel-Tate Royal Commission in 1925, from the report of which the following extracts, with which this Committee finds itself in complete agreement, are taken : — Extracts prom the Report op the Royal Commission on University Education in New Zealand, 1925. The evidence showed clearly that the position of the Professors of Education in relation to the national scheme of training teachers is unsatisfactory. It is unfortunate that Chairs of Education were established, and professors appointed, without a clear definition of the relationship which should exist between the professor and the local training college. So far as we could judge, any connections
Report of Mr. Frank Tate.
Disadvantages of divided control.
Relationship of Training Colleges to University.
Report of 1925 Royal Commission
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lie may have made with the college, or any facilities which he may have secured for entrance to the practice schools, are dependent upon the good will of the college authorities, and at any time he may be deprived of them. It is regettable that professors were, apparently, appointed before a full scheme of training was thought out. It is, of course, conceivable that a man may be appointed to a University Chair in Education by the governing body of a university because he gives proof of the possession of a scholarly knowledge of the philosophy of education, and yet he may be quite unsuitable to direct the practical affairs of a training college. This latter qualification cannot be overlooked by the authorities who employ teachers, since they must be assured of the worth of the training of the young teachers whom they are to employ. It is this consideration which justifies the Australian practice of making all appointments to senior positions in the university department of teacher training on the recommendation of a joint committee representing the University and the Education Department. The position calls for close co-operation between the university and education authorities. The common practice in Great Britain is to have two kinds of training colleges —the older type of residential training college, generally unconnected with a university and offering only a two-years course, and the University Day Training College, offering a four-years course for both primary and secondary teachers. In New Zealand each of the four training colleges is in close proximity to the local University college, and the practice of sending students to the University for instruction is general. During the present year 564 student teachers were attending university classes. Naturally, therefore, conditions are favourable for the organization of teacher-training by full co-operation between the University and the training college, if only difficulties as to the duties, responsibilities, and relative seniority of principals and professors can be adjusted satisfactorily. It is, of course, assumed that the men already appointed to be Professors of Education are such as would have been appointed by a joint committee representing the University and the education authorities. If they are not, and if it is considered that they are not suitable for taking the general direction of the scheme of teacher-training, the position should be faced and changes should be made. No responsibility should be shirked in providing the most effective scheme of training, since the efficiency of the whole educational scheme rests upon the ability and enthusiasm of the teachers. The standard of work of the teachers determines the height to which any scheme of public education can rise. While, however, the Commission expressed its conviction that " the practice of combining in one person the positions of Professor of Education and Principal of the Teachers' College, followed in Australia, is the most suitable form of organization for New Zealand," it naively added, " We offer no opinion as to the method by which the change we advocate is to be carried out." The result is that to-day, five years later, the position is just the same as it was then, and this Committee is strongly convinced that it ought not to be allowed to continue any longer. The condemnation of the existing system by the Hon. Sir Thomas Sidey, Chancellor of the University of Otago, has already been quoted. The following extract is from the evidence of Mr. M. Rocke O'Shea, 8.C0m., Registrar of the Auckland University College, who appeared before the Committee officially to state the views of the College Council upon the matter:— Extracts prom the Evidence oe Mr. M. Rocke O'Shea, 8.C0m., Registrar of Auckland University College Council. Training Colleges and the University. —This is one of the most important points that the college will touch on in its evidence before you. The following was part of a series of resolutions passed in Wellington on 17th February, 1926, by a conference of senior officers of Education Departments, Principals of training colleges, Professors of Education, &c., called by the then Minister of Education, Sir James Parr :— " That in order to provide the greatest unity and co-ordination of effort between the training college and the University, it is desirable that there should be one professional head." Precis Notes of Suggestions placed before the Reichel-Tate Commission by the Professor of Education : — (1) The present system of teacher-training, set up round about 1906, was devised for the training of the only body of State teachers New Zealand then had to any appreciable extent —primary teachers. Since then there has arisen an extensive secondary service of the older academic type, and now we witness an expanding system of varied post-primary schools. So far, no means of adequately training teachers for the special and difficult problems of these schools has been provided, yet much of their success will depend upon this factor of specialized training. The theoretical provision for such teachers is legislated for in the statute relating to Diploma of Eudcation in New Zealand University Calendar, designed to equip specialist teachers. No machinery is available, however, on the practical side.
No change since 1925.
Evidence of Registrar of Auckland University College.
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(2) The simplest solution of the problem of training different types of teachers is to reorganize the training machinery under the University colleges. This is in the interests of ultimate economy, of the co-ordination of all classes of teacher-training, and of linking lip the theory of education with all branches of practice. (3) The admission status of students in training colleges should be that of the proper undergraduate body. (4) He stresses specially the considerable reluctance which University graduates who propose to be secondary teachers show to going into the training college for practical work. A very small number actually do this. These people do not and cannot mix well with their juniors of seventeen to nineteen years. (5) Professional training of teachers should be given second place to that of no other group, and should be directed from the University, as is done with medicine, engineering, &c. (6) This is the trend in all countries to-day. And when the reasons urged are economy and world practice it seems difficult for those in authority to refuse to make the change ; and apparently one of the points on which the Committee is concentrating is the reduction of duplication and overlapping. The University does not consider that a more glaring case than this can be pointed out, or that you can be given a greater opportunity for effective economy. The Committee attached very great weight to the opinions expressed by Dr. James Hight, M.A., Litt.l).. Rector of Canterbury College, who, as the accredited representative of the Dominion at the Imperial Education Conference in 1927, was in a position to advise it upon the most recent developments in the Homeland with regard to this subject. In the following extract Dr. Hight expresses his comments upon the New Zealand system in the broad light of his contact with the methods now being followed at Home. In the succeeding extract, which is taken from his report upon the Conference, a brief description of the latest English and Scottish practice is given. Extract from the Evidence of Dr. James Hight, M.A., Litt.D., Rector of Canterbury College. The training of teachers : In point of salary and allowances the conditions of the young teacher in training are more favourable in New Zealand than generally at Home or in America. But some of the conditions of the training itself call for radical reform to bring them into line with general usage. The outlook of the people will depend largely on the breadth of vision, the wide sympathies, and the range of intellectual interests of the teachers who help to form their bent in youth. We cannot rise above our very narrow insular point of view unless our minds have been trained to be free, curious as to life in other lands, and receptive of new ideas after they satisfy our trained judgment. The University colleges are particularly interested in those students who intend to become teachers, and whose talents and capabilities are such that there is great potential loss to the community if they cannot take the full course for a University degree under such conditions as will permit of their getting its full value without injurious reaction on their health. The lot of a student who attends the training college all day till 3 p.m. or 3.30 p.m., and then does a complete course at the University, involving at least two hours a day lectures, who has to prepare work for the training college and who has to keep up his reading and do his exercises for the University course, is one that taxes all the best students to the utmost if the work be properly done. But, in fact, it cannot be properly done, normally speaking, and the character of the student suffers accordingly, as well as his attitude towards the degree, towards learning, and towards education in the fullest sense of the term. His study tends to become a scramble through the barest minimum of text-books, and so to have little cultural and inspirational value. We find also that there is a, conflict of loyalties in the mind of the student, and this is, perhaps, growing rather than diminishing. He can identify himself completely neither with the training college nor with the University college. At the training college he is associated with many students of lower intellectual calibre and more elementary interests. He therefore tends to deprecate the value of his training college work. This is deplorable from the point of view of the true interests of the teaching profession and of education. That there is an attitude of this kind is definitely stated by many students after they have left training college. The organizing of a University arts course with day-time classes is impossible as long as so many students coming from the training colleges are unable to attend except in late afternoon or evening. One of the worst features is that the supply of teachers with a sound training in science is seriously deficient owing to the fact that the present arrangement does not allow of student teachers in training taking a full science course. The differentiating of students' courses within the training colleges would appear to be impossible to the desired extent with so large a number of students and so inadequate a staff. The ratio of staff to students and courses in the training colleges is too large. At present there is an unwarranted duplication of students and staff caused by a mixture of University and non-University students in the same classes as the training colleges. Those who are familiar with training systems abroad, having actually shared in their administration or spent some time in observing them, like Professor Shelley, who has been a member of the staff of both Government and University training colleges in England, and Professor Wall, who was present at a conference of the Universities of Great Britain last year, held specially to consider the relations of the Universities to the training colleges, and I myself, aftej
Evidence of Rector of Canterbury College.
81
1.-8 A
visiting the training colleges in Great Britain, Ireland, and the United States in 1927, and making close inquiries into their policies and administration, all feel strongly that the New Zealand system is in many respects an abnormal one and urgently requires reforming. Not only should there be systematic training for teachers, but there should be some form of training appropriate to the needs of administrators, and those people in the community who feel they would like to be on various control Boards. The training of teachers abroad is on a sounder footing than in New Zealand, in that the trainees are brought together in residential colleges, in close touch with the university, begin their professional training only after a period of higher academic training, and that certification depends on their character as developed in the manifold activities of training college and practising school and university. This system stimulates in the teacher a most active mind, keen to experiment, to get down to the fundamental business of education, alert to weigh and test out new methods. Only after such training can teachers properly appreciate and apply the revolutionary epoch-making methods such as those that are evolving from the new advances in psychology—the study of the mind of the child and the adult. Particularly valuable are the contacts of training college and university. In New Zealand both are lacking in some of their essentials. We must improve them—it would be a serious mistake to sever them completely. (See my final report to the Minister on the Imperial Education Conference, 1927, pp. 9-16 and the Report of the University Commission, E.-7a, 1925, pp. 32 and 91-92.) Extract prom the Report op Professor J. Hight, M.A., Litt.D., New Zealand Delegate to the Imperial Education Conference, 1927. 1. The Training of Teachers.—This is a matter of such vital importance in any system of education that any notable change made as a result of experience in a great country is well worth close study. Such a change is now in process in England, where the system of training is being further decentralized. The proposals may best be described in the words of the Senior Chief Inspector of Schools :— " As far as this country is concerned we are in the midst of an entire transformation of our training system. Up to now, the training in this country has been either (1) by means of the University training departments —that is, a four-year course, a three-year academic course, plus a one year professional course —or (2) in the two-year training college of local or private authorities where the student can come and do academic and professional work. In the case of the universities their academic work is their degree, and the Board of Education has nothing to do with it, but we kept a hold over the professional training. With regard to the two-year training colleges, the Board approved the syllabus, set the examination, and examined the candidates, and, therefore, every student turned out of a two-year training college practically had passed through the hands of the Board both academically and professionally. It has now been thought, in the first place, inexpedient that the central authority should be an examining authority. The idea is that the Board of Euducation in England is a body which will, roughly, accept the teachers presented to it by other bodies, and will interpose only if it has reason to believe that the liberty given to certain bodies has ' been abused. At the present moment the intention of the Board is, after next year, to abandon its own examination for the teacher's certificate and to get other educational bodies to conduct that examination —that is, the academic side. Now, at the present moment all the training colleges and the local authorities and the universities are negotiating among themselves as to what scheme to adopt to carry out these ideas. Roughly speaking, England has been divided into nine regions, and the idea is that training colleges should group themselves regionally round particular universities, and that the colleges grouped round a particular university should, with the university, in themselves form an examining body which would determine a syllabus and an examination and the passing of the student. One of the difficulties of the position is that we are placing upon the universities academic functions which are rather inconsistent with the university aspirations. In other words, the Board is asking them systematically to examine and certificate students who are not supposed to reach a degree standard, or anything like it. But, at any .rate, that is the principle on which it is going. What will happen is that there will be about nine or ten bodies in England, probably universities, plus the training colleges grouped round them, with the representatives possibly of some of the local authorities, and these bodies will examine students academically, will pass students academically, and the Board will probably accept the certificate issued unless it has very strong reason to think something has gone wrong, and the only check maintained will be the Board's assessors on those examining bodies. The Board, too, will be very free indeed, after judging from the experience of these teachers in the schools for a certain time, to comment adversely, if necessary, upon the product of any particular group concerned. With regard to professional subjects, such as singing, drawing, and physical exercises, the Board will still probably examine in those subjects, because the universities have not generally got the body of men capable of doing it. The Board, too, is keeping absolutely in its own hands the examination and testing in practical teaching. That is not left to the discretion of these bodies at all. That is entirely in its own hands, and as part of the course of training it has now imposed a probationary year. The teacher, after having left the training college, goes through a year of probation. The headmaster or the local authority has to report upon that teacher ; the Board Inspector has to report as well, and as the result of that joint report the teacher will be certificated or not. The certificate is not really granted until the end of the probationary year."
Evidence of New Zealand delegate to 1927 Imperial Education Conference.
Training of teachers in England.
6—l. Ba.
I.—Ba.
82
Training of teachers in Scotland,
An officer of the Scottish Education Department, in describing the system of training in Scotland, said: — " Our system in Scotland is different from that which has hitherto obtained in England, but the new system which has been sketched will approximate the two more closely. I think we have even gone further than what is proposed to be done in England. So long as twenty years ago we discontinued our examinations,' and the training of teachers in Scotland has since then been thoroughly reorganized. We now have only one body responsible for the training of teachers in Scotland. This is called the National Committee for the Training of Teachers, and it consists of representatives of the different Education authorities of the whole country. That body, of course, is a large one, and cannot be expected to meet very frequently ; as a matter of fact, once a year is about all that it does meet; but they appoint an executive committee which is really the body which controls the training of teachers in Scotland, and there are four provincial committees grouped round the four universities of Scotland, each of which has under its charge a large training centre and conducts the training at that centre. At present the qualification for entry into training in the case of men is that they must be graduates. There is no alternative even for primary schools. In the case of women, they may be graduates, or they may hold the full leaving certificate which is issued by our Department to pupils in the secondary schools who have completed a five- or six-years curriculum. This leaving certificate is also the passport to the universities, so it is really on a matriculation standard. In addition, the women students who are entering on the strength of the leaving certificate must have taken a preliminary course of practical training in teaching. This is more particularly to ascertain whether they have really any gift to become teachers, and it is extended over three, two, or one year ; that is to say, as soon as they come to the decision to go in for teaching it is open to them to come under this special course of training, which is taken at their own schools under the Education authorities, who have Masters of Method to supervise the training at that stage. They are finishing their school curriculum at the same time as they are taking this practical training. It does not extend to the whole time, but so many hours during the course of the year. Then when they reach the training college the progress of the student is tested jointly by our own visiting Inspectors and the responsible lecturers at the training college, and at the close of their training each student is assessed a mark in respect of each subject which he or she has taken, and a conspectus of these marks is drawn up and the Chief Inspector discusses with the Director of Studies of the centre which of these students, if any, should be stopped ; and each student, I may say, is awarded a mark of promise as a teacher —either " Excellent," or " Very good," or " Good," or " Fairly good " —and these marks are entered upon the probation certificate which the teacher receives. In Scotland we have two years of probation before the final certificate is issued. The probation certificate carries the teacher on until the probation is finished. There is a provision on that certificate for reports by the head teachers under whom they serve, and these reports are gathered together at the close of the probation and the whole thing is considered by our Chief Inspector for the Training of Teachers, and if the reports are satisfactory the teacher's certificate is then issued ; if they are unsatisfactory, or not entirely satisfactory, the probation may be extended perhaps for another year, or, in extreme cases, the probation certificate would be withdrawn and the probationer would drop out." With such evidence before it, the Committee came to the conclusion that New Zealand could not do better than apply to local conditions the principles governing the latest English, Scottish, and Australian practice. At the same time, it felt that it ought not merely to point to the principles which should, in its opinion, govern the desired reorganization, but to indicate also the practical method by which it proposes that these may be effectively applied. It has, therefore, recommended the consolidation of the training colleges and their staffs with the University College Schools of Education and their arts and science staffs. The advantages of such a course appear to the Committee to be manifold. Before proceeding, however, to enumerate these, the Committee feels that it is only right that it should refer to the evidence tendered by the Director of Education, Mr. T. B. Strong, M.A., B.Sc., whose statement on this matter was as follows : — Evidence of the Director oe Education, Mr. T. B. Strong, M.A., B.Sc. Training of Teachers.—One of your witnesses recommended securing the services of an English expert to report on our training college system. There is no need to incur such expense. The weaknesses of the system are quite apparent to the Department. They are as follows (1) Students endeavour to carry on study for a University degree at the same time as they are receiving a professional training in the principles and practice of teaching. (2) Our handwork is weaker than in the Old Country. Our drawing and singing were also weak until we engaged specialist lecturers in these subjects. (3) We have no training colleges for secondary and technical teachers. (4) The training colleges are not under efficient administrative control.
English, Scottish, and Australian example.
Evidence of Director of Education.
83
I.—BA
These are the chief weaknesses. The first could be removed by extending the student's maintenance allowance to cover the period during which he is attending the University, and requiring him while at the training college to give undivided attention to his professional training. This extension of the allowance would, of course, cost money. The second weakness could be removed by employing more specialists—more money again. The third weakness is a serious one, and could be readily overcome by establishing another training college. This is not to be thought of. New South Wales, with 9,800 teachers, has one college ; New Zealand, with 7,800 teachers, has four. Surely it would be extravagance run mad to establish another. There is, however, another way to solve the problem. At present the Wellington Training College is so small that it cannot accommodate all the students it is supposed to take, and the Department pays £1,500 a year to send North Island students to Dunedin and Christchurch Training Colleges. If more accommodation were provided in Wellington there would be about 150 students left in the Dunedin Training College. What we might do is to send all these to Christchurch, which would become the training college for the South Island students who are training for the primary schools, and then to convert the Dunedin Training College into a college for secondary and technical teachers. The fourth weakness is a very serious one. The training of teachers is a national education service, and should be the responsibility of the Department and not of the Education Boards. Long ago, before the national system of appointments was instituted, each Board either trained teachers for its own service or did not train at all. Now students from four to five districts may attend the same training college, so that the training of teachers is no longer the responsibility of the individual Boards. The weakness of the present system is that the Department finds itself without the necessary authority to secure the most efficient type of training. For example, one Principal does not believe in practical training; he believes in lecturing without practical demonstration and training, and the Department is helpless. The Board, of course, does not interfere in the training college policy, and the college becomes a law unto itself. I have no hesitation in recommending in the interest of efficiency that the training college should be placed under the control of the Department. It is of interest to note that the Director's statement is in agreement with the evidence of other witnesses as to the weaknesses of the existing system. Several considerations, however, influenced the Committee in arriving at the recommendations which it has made. First, it was strongly impressed, as already stated, with Dr. Hight's report of the recent action by the English Board of Education in the direction of decentralizing the system of training teachers by abandoning its own academic examinations for teachers' certificates, and entrusting their training to local training colleges in close association with the provincial universities ; and the similar organisation of this work in Scotland under the immediate control of " four provincial committees grouped round the four universties of Scotland, each of which has under its charge a large training centre and conducts the training at that centre." The successful precedent thus set by Great Britain, which is in this way training its own teachers for the change-over to the new system of intermediate education there, seemed a sound one for New Zealand to follow in view of the similar new movement in education about to be launched in the Dominion. The Committee further felt with regard to the long-standing friction over the training colleges between the Education Department and the Education Boards that to hand over these colleges entirely to the Education Department might only serve unnecessarily to create further misunderstanding in some quarters with regard to the broad principles upon which the Committee's report is based, which require the nationalization only of those services and functions that cannot be dealt with, so efficiently or so economically locally as they can upon a national basis. It cannot be too clearly stated that the Committee is opposed to the principle of centralization of educational administration as it is commonly understood, and that it is genuinely desirous of doing everything possible to stimulate local interest and to decentralize the system in every direction where that can be done without injury to the national interests ; and it feels convinced that with the successful example of English, Scottish, and Australian practice before it there is a clear case for the decentralization of teacher-training in New Zealand as herein recommended. Finally, the proposal to centralize the control of the training colleges in the Education Department still left unsolved the problem of their interrelation with the University College Schools of Education, and with University education generally, which the Committee, following the Reichel-Tate Commission, regards as the most serious problem of all. The additional expense involved in the departmental proposals constituted still another impediment in the way of their adoption. In this respect the Committee feels that the New Zealand Faculties of Education, which it is recommended should be set up to undertake duties similar to those of the Scottish provincial committees, will be in a better position than the local 6*
Decentralization of teacher training in Great Britain.
Centralization offer; no solution of problem.
University Faculties of Education proposed,
I. -Ba,
84
training groups associated with the English universities, in that upon the proposed consolidation being effected they will have upon their staffs fully qualified specialist lecturers in singing, drawing, and physical training, and will consequently be in a position to conduct the examination of trainees in all subjects. This will entirely obviate the necessity for the continuance of the departmental examinations. By this means a somewhat similar service will be done for teacher students as will be performed for University students generally by the elimination of the present New Zealand University Exmainations. That there will be a consequent saving of expense is also clear. It is further manifest that the consolidation of the training college and University college staffs will mean the addition to the staffs of the latter of some fifty additional fully qualified specialist lecturers, whose total salaries at present exceed £25,000. Many of these are arts and science lecturers, whose assistance will be exceedingly valuable in the very departments where overcrowding is most serious, so that the consolidation will also in itself help, by putting an end to the present lecture duplication in these branches, to reduce considerably the size of classes at the University colleges. Moreover, by the consolidation all the trainees will become full-time students of the University colleges, a reform which cannot fail to react with immense benefit both upon the colleges and upon themselves. One of the peculiar features of university education in New Zealand hitherto has been the fact that only 32 per cent, of men students and 43 per cent, of women students attend full-time. By the consolidation of the training colleges with the University colleges this proportion will be raised to 54 per cent, of men students and 87 per cent, of women students in full-time attendance —an immense improvement. Not the least benefit which a true university confers on its students is that which they derive from mutual intercourse with one another outside the lecture-rooms ; and there seems to be no sound reason why intending teachers should be trained in separate institutions and denied the advantage of rubbing shoulders with students preparing for other walks in life—medicine, law, engineering, or whatever it may be. On the contrary, the Committee is strongly of opinion that the present system is defective in this respect, and that, owing to the fact that their life's work has wholly to do with children, there is more need for such intercourse for intending teachers than for any other class of students. Another valuable result that will accrue from the proposed consolidation will be that it will make possible the organization of effective educational research work at each training centre, through the psychological clinics and in other ways, and the institution of degrees in education. The Committee was impressed by the high standard of academic attainment required of all men teachers in Scotland, and is anxious to promote in every possible way anything that can be done to raise the academic and professional qualifications of New Zealand teachers to the same level. In this connection the Committee finds itself in hearty agreement with Dr. Hight in his suggestion that provision should also be made ultimately for the specialized training of educational administrators under the scheme. Such work is already an established feature of American and Canadian teachers' colleges, where post-graduate students may, by specialized courses of study, secure the endorsement upon their diplomas and degrees in Education of higher and special qualifications necessary for headmasterships, the Inspectorate, and even the more important administrative appointments. An important feature of the Committee's recommendation is that by which it is proposed that within each University one Faculty of Education will specialize in sub-primary and primary, and the other in post-primary teacher training. With the termination of primary education at the age of 11 plus, and the raising of the compulsory school age to 15 years, the proportion of teachers engaged in the postprimary branches —including in that term secondary, technical, and agricultural teachers of both intermediate and senior grade —will be greatly increased. For the training of these teachers Mr. Tate recommended a separate training college, at the same time emphasizing the great difference that exists between the two stages in respect of both the psychology and the methodology of education. The proposals made will, it is believed, enable adequate provision to be made for effective profes-
Consolidation the real remedy.
Effect of consolidation of teaching staffs.
Organization of effective educational research at each training centre.
Specialization in grades of teacher training.
85
I.—Ba
sional training in all three post-primary branches. In determining the centres at which such specialization should be undertaken in each Island, the Committee had regard to the greater proximity of the Wellington and Christchurch University and Training Colleges to the Agricultural Colleges, in close association with which it is hoped that an increasing number of specialist post-primary agricultural teachers will be trained. Finally, provision has been made for the setting-up of a Faculty of Education within each University college, which shall be charged with the responsibility of organizing and controlling the training given. Upon this faculty the Education Department will, of course, be strongly represented, and it will be through this representation, as in England, that it will secure that the training given is of a practical character in keeping with the actual work of the schools. Provision is also made whereby adequate teaching practice will be available for the trainees, and there is abundant evidence that this can be so organized that the schools in which it is obtained will benefit rather than suffer by the presence and work of the students in the class-rooms. Upon certification by the local training centres, the students will still be required to undergo a further period of at least one year's probationary service in actual school work, during which headmasters and Inspectors will report closely upon their efficiency. The final certification will be the work of the Department, which will thus effectively control the output of the local training centres at the gateway of their actual admission to the Service. It is scarcely necessary to add that the Department will also, in the first instance, select the students for appointment as probationers, and so control the intake of the training colleges as well. The Committee therefore recommends—(14) (a) That the training colleges in the four centres be handed over to the control of the University college authorities, together with their buildings, equipment, and staffs ; and that the general lecturers so handed over be utilized to reduce the size of classes in the University arts and science departments. (b) That the professional lecturing staff of the training colleges be consolidated with that of the University Schools of Education and Psychological Clinics to form a strong School of Education in each centre ; and that provision be made for educational research work to be undertaken in conjunction therewith. (c) That University degrees in education be established for teachers and administrators, with endorsement as to the special fields for which qualifications are obtained. (d) That within the University of Northern New Zealand the Auckland University College should undertake the training of sab-primary and primary teachers ; and that the Victoria University College and Massey Agricultural College should undertake the training of post-primary and agricultural teachers ; and that within the University of Southern New Zealand the Otago University should undertake the training of sub-primary and primary teachers ; and the Canterbury College and Canterbury Agricultural College the training of post-primary and agricultural teachers. (e) That for the immediate control of each training college, the direction of the courses of training, and the examination and certification of trainees, a Faculty of Education should be set up by each University college, to consist of representatives of the University college, the Education Department, and the New Zealand Federation of Teachers, which should be responsible for the determination ©f entrance qualifications, the preparation of syllabuses of studies, the arrangement of teaching practice, and the granting of certificates, these to be awarded upon the Internal examination system at present in operation in the training colleges.
Faculty of Education to be set up within each University college.
Recommendations,
I.—BA
86
(/) That arrangements be made in conjunction with the Education Department and District Education Boards for adequate teaching practice to be obtained in the various types of schools within each of the four centres ; and that for this purpose the Minister of Education, upon the recommendation of the Faculty of Education in any centre, should have power, if necessary, to make regulations requiring any ; school or schools to be made available for the purposes of affording teaching practice for students in training, and governing the conditions under which such training shall be carried out in the schools. CHAPTER XIV.—HIGHER TECHNICAL EDUCATION. In some respects the most difficult problem that the Committee had to investigate was that which related to technical education. This problem, which presented several difficult aspects, is, like so many others, due to the historical development of technical education as a separate branch of the education system. In saying this the Committee is, of course, not referring to the manual and domestic training given to the pupils of the elementary schools, but to the number of wholly admirable technical schools which are now to be found in every centre of importance throughout the Dominion. These schools, established in consequence of the firm adherence of the older high and grammar schools to the academic ideals of the English " public schools," have since developed as full-time secondary schools of the type now known in England as " modern " and in America as " composite " high schools. They are, therefore, totally different from the trade schools of New South Wales or the senior technical schools of Victoria, which confine themselves entirely to the training of young persons in actual employment or in actual intensive, preparation for specific trades and vocations. The New Zealand technical schools, therefore, so far as their day courses are concerned, are in reality " short course " schools which are meeting the needs of pupils whose parents, for the most part, cannot keep them longer at a post-primary school than, on the average, from about eighteen months to two years. They then enter upon various employments and, in many cases, enrol themselves for continued education in the night classes. But as far as daytime trade classes are concerned it is clear that these are very few. This is due to the prevailing unwillingness of employers to give their apprentices time off for this purpose. As regards the night classes, these are of a different character, the pupils being both of maturer years and, for the most part, in actual employment. Their desire for self improvement and the sacrifices they make to attend and study at the technical colleges, are, in the opinion of the Committee, most praiseworthy ; but it is clear that studies undertaken in this way at night after a full day's work are carried on under conditions the reverse of ideal, and the Committee would like to see some means devised whereby an increasing amount of this work could be taken in the day school. With regard to higher technical education, two factors were found to be operating to prevent any great advance being made in this direction. The first of these is the comparative smallness and even distribution of population which prevent the development of the large-scale secondary industries that are to be found in the great cities overseas. The second is the regrettable fact that for such a small number of students as is available there is in this field, as in so many others, competition and duplication of services between rival institutions under separate control—in this case the technical colleges and the University college technical schools. As a result of this rivalry the Committee found, for example, at Christchurch that, on the one hand, there are at the Canterbury College Engineering School a large number of non-matriculated evening students who ought, in its opinion, to be attending the Technical College classes; while, on the other hand, no means was provided whereby recognition could be obtained by students of
Admirable work of technical schools should be encouraged.
Instances of overlapping.
87
I.—Ba.
the Technical College classes for their engineering-work, even though it might reach a standard equal > to that done in 1 lie University college school. Having all these ) difficulties in ; view, the Committee explored the possibility of consolidating the technical colleges in the four fc ,chief centres with the University colleges along the lines already recommended m the case of the teachers' training colleges, and reserving them for the higher technical education of apprentices and adults, whether in actual employment or not, with provision for recognition by the universities of work of approved standard, as recommended by Mr. Tate. These proposals, and the difficulties of the whole problem, were fully discussed with the Superintendent of Technical Education, the Directors of leading technical colleges, Chairmen and members of Boards of Governors of such colleges, and prominent employers of labour and representatives of Apprenticeship Committees. Considerations of space and expense, unfortunately, forbid the printing of the whole of the evidence taken, which is very voluminous ; but.)in view of the practical importance of this particular subject of investigation the following abridgment of the evidence and examination of Messrs. W. S. La Trobe, M.A., Superintendent of Technical Education, and J. H. Howell, 8.A., B.Sc., and Dr. D. E. Hansen, M.Sc., D.lng., Directors of the Wellington and Technical Colleges respectively, is [in the report. This, in the opinion of the Committee, covers the main lines ofjthe discussions and serves to show clearly the difficulties which beset the solution of the problem upon the comprehensive lines which the Committee at first proposed. Extract from the Evidence of Mr. W. S. La Trobe, M.A., Superintendent of Technical Education. I have been asked to give some information with regard to the education of apprentices. At the present time, so far as the technical schools are concerned, and those trades in which Apprenticeship Committees have been formed under the Apprentices Act, 1923, there has been quite a lot of progress. At present, however, those cases do not cover a large proportion of the total, and even in those cases the system is far from being perfect. There has always been a strong objection on the part of the technical school authorities that the training of the apprentices, so far as the technical schools are concerned, can only be put on a sound basis when the work of the apprentice in the school is part of his daily work. That is the fundamental position taken by the technical school authorities —I am not speaking of the Department —throughout the country who have the training of these young people in hand, and that position has been maintained for a good many years. The difficulty, of course, has been that under the various factors which operate in this country —perhaps more adversely than they do in most —it has been found impracticable to introduce day training for apprentice j, except in one or two exceptional cases. In the Auckland Technical School they have day classes for jjlumbers, carried on on Saturday mornings, and at Christchurch for some time they had day classes for painters and decorators' apprentices, but I am not sure whether they are still running them there —they were two or three years ago. The difficulties in the plumbing trade are considerable, because, the employers explain, it is always necessary for every man on a job to have his boy working to assist, and it is only on Saturday morning, possibly, that the boys can be spared to go to a technical school for training. In other trades the boys seem to be required all the time on the ordinary days of labour, and the general attitude of the employers towards day training has been hostile —I think I may say, definitely hostile. So far as trade classes are concerned, the difficulties in this country are very considerable. There is not sufficient concentration of manufacturing in any particular place to make it possible to gather together a considerable number of pupils who are doing the same kind of work, and that has, I think, militated very largely against the establishment of such classes and schools as are run, for example, in connection with large engineering works in Great Britain and other countries. -The technical schools are not able to provide full courses for the same reason —that there are not sufficient students each year to make it possible to provide full courses. In a good many trades full courses are provided in Great Britain, America, and other countries where there is a vast population, but the fact that we have a large number of technical schools for a small number of pupils, relatively speaking, does prevent our arranging satisfactory courses in a good many of the trades. We are, therefore, working under greater difficulties than are found in other countries. Even in Australia the manufacturing populations ar concentrated in three or four of the large towns, and it is comparatively easy to arrange for proper training of the young people apart from the workshop training. The Apprentices Act of 1923 does not lay upon the Education Department the duty of providing technical education—or, rather, trade training —for apprentices : all that is required by that Act is that the Minister of Education shall certify, in cases where an order has been made for boys to attend a technical school, that the classes are available, and that the teaching and equipment are satisfactory for the purpose of training. If he cert fies to that effect, then the boys are ordered to attend, and the cost of training, where the boys are no" holders of free places, is partially covered by fees charged, which are in many cases paid by the employers. And the boys attending the classes receive in many cases additional increments in wages during their apprenticeship, so that there is in most cases an encouragement for the boys to
Possible remedial schemes explored.
Evidence of Superintendent of Technical Education.
I.—Ba.
88
attend, apart from the order of tlie Apprenticeship Committee. There has been some little difficulty in this respect, in that the proper function of the ordinary technical schools, as distinct from the trade school, is to inculcate those principles of applied science and art which lie at the root of trade practice rather than to give the pupils manual dexterity in the performance of the everyday operations of their trade. In my opinion, the Apprenticeship Committees take a view somewhat intermediate between the trade school and the technological institutions. They regard it as the function of the technical school to provide, in certain trades, at any rate, actual trade training in the operations of the trade itself, in addition to the inculcation of the principles and arts xmderlying the trade. For instance, take the case of the printing trade : We have recently had an application from the Auckland Technical School for a grant of some £990 for a linotype machine for their evening classes. They have already two or three old machines on loan, but they want a new machine, and that in spite of the fact that, so far as actual training in the operation is concerned, practically the keyboard, with a short period of training, would be sufficient; but the feeling is that they want the boys to practice absolutely under trade conditions. The same is true to some extent in the motor trade : We have had one or two applications for absolutely new machines —motor-cars and chassis—in order that the students may be put on to the latest thing, whereas it is quite immaterial from the point of view of training them in the principles and arts underlying their trade whether the motor is a 1930 or a 1920 model, and the difference in cost is the difference between that of a new machine and nothing, because you can get the old chassis for nothing. That illustrates to some extent a slight difference in the viewpoint which may arise between the Apprenticeship Committees and the technical school authorities. It can only be settled, I think, by consultation between the people who are directly concerned and the adoption of a method which will be suitable for this country's requirements and within its means. This type of education is a question of money. In the case of trades in which the amount of material to be put through is considerable that factor is important. Of course, such a class as a linotype class does not cost much to run beyond the interest on the capital cost of the machinery. There is no output to dispose of, and no large amount of material to supply ; but in the case of the boot trade, for example, it is very different. If a model factory were set up in New Zealand to train apprentices in the boot trade it would be necessary to dispose of the output at the ordinary rates, or as nearly as possible at those rates. That would mean a very large consumption of material and a very large output to dispose of. As a matter of fact, I have been informed in connection with the boot trade that a single manufacturing unit put on one line of mens' boots would be sufficient to supply the whole of New Zealand. In Australia, I believe, they get over the difficulty by using the output for Government institutions —prisons and homes. The whole question is very important in this country, where our industries are comparatively small —more important than in a country where the industries are more numerous and bigger, where an additional unit makes no difference, and where there are a sufficient number of pupils to train to make it worth while putting in extra plant and obtaining the necessary material. There are a large number of trades in which those conditions would not obtain, and in those trades it is practically impossible for the technical schools or the Government to contemplate that the technical schools should do more than provide that training in the underlying sciences and arts which would enable the boys who are learning a trade to raise themselves above the status of a journeyman who looks no further than the bench. For the actual training, I think, we must still depend on the old-fashioned workshop. There, again, the conditions are changing in the direction of specialization in the work of the journeyman, and there is less demand on his intelligence and the width of his training. Men are put on one machine and kept on it until they become proficient in a short time, and thereafter they can neither increase their efficiency nor their emoluments. In a brief period they reach their maximum, and then it is a question as to how long they will stay. On the other hand, the development of the greater specialization in trade processes appears also to bring with it the development of a class of employee who may be termed an adjuster, who keeps the machinery in order and arranges the processes of the different machines, and he may be in charge of a large number of machines each operated by one operative. A man of that character requires a very different training, and the technical school can do a good deal for him ; but it cannot do much for the operative in the way of preparing him for his trade, as I have shown. I think, in New Zealand, therefore, we can say that at the present time, and probably for a considerable period, the trade school, properly so called, will hardly be possible. If we attempt to do trade work we have too many boys for the machinery. In the linotype class to which I have referred we have at the most three or four students attending the class. That makes the cost of the class four times as heavy as the average class. So far as New Zealand i's concerned, I think that to establish something between what are called in the English technical schools minor and major courses is the most we can hope for. The major course in England is intended for the boy who is ambitious to be a manager or foreman, or something of that sort, and the minor courses are provided for those who wish to have sufficient knowledge to become men in charge of small gangs — leading hands, and the like. And the difference between the two is.one of degree rather than of essential character. There is more practical work done in the minor courses, and less attention is paid to laboratory work and theory. I think, therefore, that we shall have to confine our attention for some time to come, as we have done in the past, mainly to the sciences and arts underlying the trade, giving a certain amount of work with practical machinery and apparatus to enable those principles to be illustrated by the teacher to the students engaged directly in the trade concerned. If that is done, Ido not think it will be possible to go further and give to each pupil manual dexterity such as he would get in a shop. Mr. Young : I understand you consider school attendance should be a fundamental part of apprentice training ? Witness : Yes, I think so, provided it is under the right conditions. Of course, at the present time, and, I suppose, for many years to come, we will not be able to insist on attendance of apprentices
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during their working hours. That would involve day attendance. As a matter of fact, lam against compulsory attendance in the evening altogether. Mr. Young : On what grounds ? Witness : On the grounds that it is not a fair thing for the boy to be working at night— physiologically or morally. Mr. Young : In any scheme which involved day classes we could expect opposition from the employers ? Witness : I think so. There was a conference held recently of the Apprenticeship Committees, and they were equally divided on that question ; and they were equally divided, I think, because there was equal representation of employers and employees. Mr. Young : You say that many of the technical schools could not give full apprentice courses : does that apply to schools only outside the cities, or does it include those in the cities ? Witness : It includes the whole of them so far as many trades are concerned. While it is true that we have in some technical schools engineering workshops, carpentry shops, and even woodworkmachinery shops, we have not the range of machines that could be found in an ordinary factory. Mr. Young : The time is not ripe at present to constitute technical schools places for full-time teaching of apprentices ? Witness : Not in the sense of giving the apprentices the whole of their training in the school. Mr. Young : You think that, in any case, that instruction would have to be given partly in the school and partly in the factory ? Witness : I think so. Mr. Young : You approve of part training in the school ? Witness : Yes, in the daytime ; and so far as the evening school is concerned, I suppose it would be better to have some rather than none. Mr. Young : Do you know of any factories which have technical teachers to teach the youths the fundamental scientific principles of their trade ? Witness : The railway workshops, I think, have some arrangements in that connection. Mr. Young : But generally speaking ? Witness : Generally speaking, I do not think so. Mr. Young: Would such teaching be available at the technical schools ? Witness : Not exactly that training, because the technical schools, generally speaking, would not have the necessary equipment, but so far as the theory is concerned it would be available. Mr. Young : For instance, the fundamental principles of engineering would apply to metalwork ? Witness : Yes, and the boy could get that in the technical school in his district if there happened to be a sufficient number of pupils to make it worth while running a class. I might explain in connection with that that the Government has made very liberal provision as regards the sizes of classes in evening schools for technical schools. For years past classes of as few as three or four pupils have been recognized in trades which were essential for the health and safety of the community—for instance, plumbing, electrical wiring, cookery classes for nurses. Where it is recognized that the classes are essential for the health and safety of the people, and also where it is necessary for the student to undergo training before obtaining a license, exceptional provisions are made, but in the ordinary classes the minimum number in a trade class in the smaller centres is eight, and fifteen in the larger centres. That includes theory and practice ; and the number in intermediate centres is ten. The provisions have to be liberal because the population is sparse. Mr. Young : What are the functions and powers exercised by the Apprenticeship Committees ? Witness : My Department is not directly concerned with those, except in regard to the attendance at schools. The committee has, I understand, the power to transfer apprentices —for example, if an employer does not give proper training; or it may dismiss an apprentice from his work altogether. Its powers are statutory. Mr. Young: What do you consider to be the weaknesses in the present system of training apprentices and what suggestions can you make with a view to remedying them ? Witness : I think our difficulties are mainly those of meeting the peculiar circumstances of our sparse populations, and the difficulties presented by small industries, and those, I think, can only be met gradually as the industries grow, because even if we provided classes for one or two pupils in any particular trade we would have several years to provide for, and it is almost impossible to organize in many cases suitably. Mr. Young : Outside the larger centres, such as Wanganui, Palmerston North, and Hamilton, it would be almost impossible to organize classes ? Witness : The only possible way out would be to bring the pupils together, and you cannot do that, because they have to earn their living. Mr. Young : So you have nothing definite to recommend other than that local circumstances must be met as nearly as may be ? Witness : Yes. I think that in principle what we are attempting is right, but the difficulty is to carry it out in practice. Mr. Young : Are you satisfied with the manner in which the work is carried on ? Witness : Personally, I have not observed it. Mr. Black : With regard to your remarks on sparse population, the population of Victoria is approximately 15 per cent, greater than in New Zealand : is it a fact that from 1922 to 1926, while New Zealand has shown an increase of only 2J per cent, in its expenditure on technical education, Victoria shows an increase of 62 per cent. ? Witness : I do not know.
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Mr. Black : We have had those figures supplied by Mr. Watts, of the Seddon Memorial College, and he makes the point that we seem to be lagging behind Victoria ill the matter of expenditure. He gave the following figures showing the total expenditure on technical education in Victoria and New Zealand :— New Zealand. Victoria. £ £ 1922.. .. .. .. 207,628 223,978 1923.. .. .. .. 177,501 260,969 1924.. .. .. .. 194,494: 292,891 1925.. .. .. .. 209,183 351,476 1926.. .. .. .. 213,065 347,003 It is a fact, is it not, that Mr. Tate in his report expressed the view that New Zealand was behind Australian schools ? Witness : In the provision of equipment, yes. Mr. Black : And since his report very little has been done ? Witness : As a matter of fact, while there has not been very much expenditure of grants — although that has been normal for equipment—still the schools have been in the position of being able to spend on equipment quite a large proportion of their allowance for incidentals. They get an allowance of 30 per cent, on teachers' salaries, and that means something like £3 15s. per head of school population, whereas in the secondary schools it is about £2 10s., plus something over for upkeep of buildings. So that there is a difference there ; and Ido know that some schools have had surpluses on their allowances for incidentals, and they have in many cases provided quite considerable amounts for equipment. As a matter of fact, the schools have been getting sufficient to keep them fairly up to date } but I am not saying for one moment that our expenditure on equipment is extravagant. In the Old Country, when I left there some twenty-five years ago, it was a common thing for the overhead charges at 5 per cent, to be equal to the teaching costs. It was considered that on that basis there would be a maximum efficiency, but that does not hold here in any branch of education. lam expressing my own personal opinion when I say that we could very well spend more on equipment than we are doing at present. Mr. Black : What do we spend now—round about £6,000 ? Witness : That is nominally what we spend, but actually there are the payments made by the Boards out of incidentals and voluntary contributions. Mr. Black: You are not providing much more than is provided by the Medical School alone ? Witness : Not a great deal more. Mr. Black: We have also had evidence concerning the staffing of the technical schools. Several witnesses have deplored the fact that the salaries to instructors are not commensurate with the work they are doing, the argument being that they should be paid as University instructors ? Witness : We have arrangements that instructors who are doing special work should be paid as for Division I. If, for instance, a trade instructor is in charge of training apprentices in their fourth or fifth year, and the work makes serious demands on his trade experience and skill, it is possible for the Department to pay as if such an instructor had a University degree. One complaint made is that when a man who is already engaged in a trade is brought into the technical schools as a full-time teacher he should receive, when he enters the teaching profession, a salary not less than that which he has been earning in his trade. We have had that put to us many times, but the Department has always been of opinion that as he is practically in the position of being an apprentice so far as teaching is concerned, and as he is changing his forty-four-hour a week position to a thirty-hour a week position, and from a position where he is not paid for holidays to one where he gets paid for about a quarter of the year holidays, he is in a relatively better position when he enters the teaching profession. And the fact tha,t the schools are able to secure the services of competent instructors shows that they are prepared to accept the conditions, which, on a commercial basis, seem to be fair. Rev. Mr. Can: You referred to plumbing and electric wiring as being two subjects in which licenses were required ? Witness: Yes. Rev. Mr. Can: And said that work under factory conditions would be preferable to work in the technical schools ? Witness : The examination for plumbers requires a knowledge of the manipulation They have to do bossing and wiping. They get practically the whole of their practical training in the technical schools. They do not get it in their own workshops, so that they are getting their certificate on work which is outside the scope of their ordinary work. The same would not apply to the same extent to the wiremen. In plumbing the teaching is on the lines of the local by-laws, but the examination is held in plumbing craftsmanship on a standard which is not reached in the ordinary work of the workshop. Rev. Mr. Can : I was wondering whether, as other trades became certificated, as in England, there would be a movement to bring similar trades in New Zealand under the same restrictions ? Witness: Yes, there is a move in that direction. Rev. Mr. Can: As that movement grew, would it not be necessary for the technical schools to approximate their training more and more to workshop conditions ? Witness : I cannot say. For instance, horticulture has already come in, and in various centres where there has been a demand we have been arranging classes in the science section, but I do not think it will be necessary to include practical gardening in the subject. The programme laid down provides for their ordinary work being taken into account, and it will probably serve right along. There is a
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necessity for the co-ordination of the work of the class-room and the laboratory, which we should never lose sight of, because the link between the class-room and the laboratory and the trade work is apt to be weak. Rev. Mr. Garr : You have stated that our education >is mainly on the'lines of providing a knowledge of fundamental principles rather than giving manual dexterity, and you have also referred to the fact that the work is becoming more and more specialized in the workshop and that the technical classes exist largely for the ambitious boys who wish to qualify for executive positions. Do you think that technical education on those lines will remove the difficulties you refer to, whereby an operative becomes a mere cog in a wheel and is disqualified for a higher position simply because his whole activities are concentrated on one particular operation 1 Witness : The tendency is, as you say, for the boy to become a cog in the machine ; but the qualifications necessary for becoming proficient in any operation in working machines are more or less mechanical, and they can be trained readily in . technical day schools. It is possible that in future an all-round training in manual and science work will be of better cultural value and prove the best preparation for the youth of our country. I have not referred to the cultural value of technical education. There has always been a tendency to claim that manual training for boys and girls was not necessarily cultural, but I think I can point to the art classes in our technical schools as being largely cultural classes. After all, if they are not being held in the technical schools, where are they to be held ? I say that, so far as cultural ucation is concerned, the technical schools are endeavouring to do their work, just as other schools are, and I have always regarded manual training as of great cultural significance. Mr. Fraser : It is a question whether it is possible for the training given in the technical schools to approximate to workshop conditions. For instance, Mr. Holland has drawn attention to the fact that he has seen boys working machinery in the technical college with their coats on. That may be only a small matter, of course ? Witness : In most cases I think the boys wear overalls ; that is the duty of the instructor. As a general principle the rule is that the condition of work in the workshop should be as nearly as possible similar to factory conditions. Mr. Fraser : Would it be possible, in connection with any industry, to institute trade classes where the practical as well as the theoretical and scientific side can be taught in one school for the Dominion-—say, for instance, one school for engineering ? Witness : We have that, of course, in Christchurch, and it is pretty well developed in Auckland. For many years trade training in art has been given in the technical schools and the schools of art. Mr. Fraser: You consider that the greatest service the technical schools can give is the training of the hand ? Witness: Yes. Mr. Fraser : Is the class for plumbers in Auckland on a Saturday morning still in existence 1 Witness : Yes, and I think it is quite successful. Mr. Fraser: What is done at that class ? Witness : They have drawing, theory and practical. They spend half the morning at practice, and the other half at drawing and theory. Mr. Fraser: And do those pupils attend other classes ? Witness: Yes, they attend in the evening as well. lam speaking from memory, but I understand they attend one evening at least in addition. Mr. Fraser : And the employers co-operate in that case ? Witness: Yes. Mr. Fraser : And are quite satisfied with the results ? Witness : I understand that it was more or less of an experiment as regards the attitude of the employers, but the results seem to have justified the experiment. Mr. Fraser : Is the class for painters and decorators in Christchurch still in existence 1 Witness :I am not sure, but Ido not think so. The School of Art was able to give a certain part of the training and the Technical School was able to give the other part. I think the matter was dropped, and the boys now go to the Art School mainly for art subjects. Mr. Fraser: I think it is the considered opinion of the Technical Schools Conference, as well as your own, that to turn out really efficient tradesmen there should be day technical classes ? Witness : I think the first conference of Principals, held in 1908 or 1909, was very much impressed with the fact that the work done in the evening classes was not up to the standard of the work done in. the day classes, and that therefore it would be better for the students if they could attend in the day instead of in the evening. Recently Mr. Howell has, I believe, attempted to start classes for boys immediately after they leave work, just as they do in the University for young men in business and in offices, but Ido not know whether he has had much success —I do not think he has. He was running a cafeteria in conjunction with the scheme, but I do not think it was a success. Mr. Fraser : I was interested in what you said about the Railway Department, because I consider that the Government Departments should set an example. Do you know what it is actually doing ? Witness : I have seen only one class at the Petone Workshops. They employ a man to take a class of apprentices, who are given trade instruction in connection with their everyday work. Some boys, I believe, attend the ordinary engineering class in the technical school in the evening and get training there. The training given in the railway workshops relates to railway work only. Mr. Fraser : How often are they held ? Witness : I think they have four or five hours a week —the whole of one half-day. I believe the scheme is also being carried on in Auckland and Dunedin. It was certainly in operation at Petone last year. We were discussing at the time the question of doing it in the technical school for the sake of efficiency, but the technical school was not able to undertake the work at that time.
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Mr. Fraser : If it could be shown that work of that kind done by the Railway Department, and, say, the Post Office, was paying, it might be an inducement for private employers to do the same ? Witness : Yes. Of course, the Government railways employ a large number of hands, and in the larger centres it would pay, whereas in smaller places it might not. The Chairman : Has the Department any statistics showing the number of children who leave primary schools and do not continue as day pupils in a secondary school % Witness : Yes, I think it has those particulars. The Chairman : Is the number considerable ? Witness : Yes, but not so considerable as it is in some, or even most countries. The Chairman : What proportion would come from the country schools ? Witness : I am not certain that I can get the separate figures. The Chairman : Take the case of a boy who is going to become an apprentice, and after leaving the primary school goes to the technical school as a day pupil, completes his course, and then becomes an apprentice. Would such a boy have any difficulty in completing his education as an evening scholar ? Witness : We prefer that the boy should remain three years in the day class, if possible. The Chairman : Are there many apprentices who only attend evening classes, and do many of those qualify and pass the City of London Guild Examinations ? Witness : I could not say what percentage sit for those examinations. Of course, they are not being held in New Zealand now, except in one or two subjects. The Chairman : In your opinion, is there a real need for technical education to be given at the technical schools during the day to the apprentices ? Witness : I have no possible doubt about it; that is the ideal to be aimed at, but whether it is possible I do not know. The Chairman : As an expert, would you recommend this Committee to recommend to the Government that provision should be made in that direction ? Witness : If such provision meant that the technical school training would be a part of the ordinary apprenticeship of the boy, then I think it should certainly be done if possible. The Chairman : If such a recommendation were given effect to, would- it discourage employers from taking apprentices ? Witness : I can illustrate that best this way. At one time, when I was in charge of the Wellington Technical College, I was urging the employers to send the boys to us in the daytime for training, to which they replied, in effect, " No, we cannot do without them ; we must have them ; we cannot get along without them." On another occasion I asked them to pay more wages to the boys who underwent our training, to which they replied, in effect, " No, the boys are of no use to us ; we could do better without them." The Chairman : It seems that in a small industry the absence of one apprentice might seriously inconvenience the work ? Witness : Yes. The Chairman : And we will have to show to the employer that he has a good deal more to gain than to lose ? Witness : It is difficult to do that. Extract from the Evidence of Mr. J. H. Howell, 8.A., B.Sc., Director. Wellington Technical College. The Chairman : Is there a lack of higher technical education in New Zealand 1 Witness : Not for the needs of the community. I believe that the educational institutions, as they are functioning to-day, are meeting the needs. You have to educate the public to get them to realize that their needs are greater than they think they are, and especially is that so in the case of employers. Employers are apt to think that it will be sufficient for them to have young and cheap labour —fellows who just " get down to it." They do not realize the importance of intelligence and efficiency in labour. We had a meeting with the Motor Engineering Advisory Committee last evening—that is an important feature of our work—and the members of that Committee are convinced of the need of the instructors being most up-to-date in their methods. They considered the question of what was necessary for the training of teachers for their industry. They hold that, first of all, a teacher must have a thoroughly sound workshop training—he must have been through the shops himself. Secondly, that he should be required every year to attend a refresher course conducted by experts —that all motor-engineering instructors should be required to attend a refresher course ; and, further, that periodically he should be free to visit the local shops and keep in touch with local requirements and advances. That is the feeling of the committee, but employers generally would not take that view. The Chairman : What facilities have you in New Zealand for the training of teachers for the technical schools ? Witness : None ; there is no encouragement for it. The Chairman: Would the allocating of the four city technical colleges on the lines suggested in proposal No. 11 be of any advantage in the training of technical teachers ? Witness : lam not prepared to say at the moment. That is a new idea, and I would like time to consider it before making a pronouncement. But lam convinced that the ideas of the Motor Engineering Advisory Committee are sound—that technical teachers should be got together regularly, and that they should be given opportunities of obtaining information as to the latest developments in their trades.
Evidence of Director, Wellington Technical College.
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Colonel McDonald: More particularly as the work is manual or practical and must be observed— it cannot be learnt from books ? Witness : That is so. Colonel McDonald : They must see the work going on ? Witness : Yes ; and changes are very rapid to-day, especially in the motor engineering trade. The Chairman : Have you had any complaints from pupils attending your college that any work they did there received no recognition at the universities ? Witness : No, I cannot say that 1 have. A number of our boys have done very well. Some of them have gone on to their B.Sc. degrees. Two or three have gone on to Canterbury College and obtained engineering degrees. The Chairman : In the case of a boy who intended to go on to Canterbury College, would it be of any advantage if he had remained at your school and graduated on the work he did ? Witness : No. There is not the demand in Wellington for a higher stage of education than we are giving. We are meeting the demand, and there is no use going beyond the demand. Rev. Mr. Can : Does not the very fact that in your technical college you are reaching a very high standard, and that your curriculum is becoming more and more advanced, suggest that your work is double banking the work that ought to be regarded as university work, and that that constitutes an argument in favour of the higher work done in your technical college being recognized as technological rather than technical 1 Witness : Mr. Lancaster, one of the foremost electrical consulting engineers in New Zealand, is a member of our Advisory Committee, and he was present on Tuesday night last when we were going round the electrical engineering classes. In the intermediate class there were only about fifteen fellows present, and in the advanced class we only have about eight. The trouble is that they do not realize the necessity of mathematics and mechanics —they are not prepared to get down to it. It is a great disappointment to me that we do not find students prepared to do the higher work that is necessary to make them masters of their trade. The Chairman : Would not that be an additional argument ? You know that in years gone by some of the secondary schools were affiliated to the University, and students could take terms. Do you not think that the fact that in your technical colleges due recognition is not given by the students to the necessity of studying all the ramifications of their trade would be an argument in favour of recognition of your work as of University standard and coming under University recognition ? Witness : No. If there is not the encouragement in industry you will find that the average student will not be prepared to undergo the self-sacrifice and exercise the self-restraint that is necessary to enable him to carry on his evening studies. It is not a light thing for the pupils. One of our boys motors to and from Wainuiomata, and there are a number of others who come in from the country districts. It takes a lot of grit on the part of a young fellow to come in a long distance in wintry weather. If there is no encouragement in industry you will not get these fellows working hard at the intricacies of the differential calculus and vector analysis. And all this is necessary for the higher branches. There are only a few of them who are prepared to undergo the grind at the end of their day's work. And Ido not think it is reasonable to expect otherwise when in a country of this size and with industry in its present condition, the financial rewards are so few. Mr. Fraser : The Committee is anxious that in anything it recommends it shall not only raise the status of the technical colleges and make them part of the University, but also, in doing that, that it shall help the country generally. Under the proposals contained in the first part of our report a number of pupils between 11 and 15 years of age will go on to the intermediate schools, and that will mean that there will be fewer scholars in succeeding years at the technical colleges. That would leave more room and staffing there for dealing with greater numbers than would attend. Then it has been pointed out in evidence given before the Committee that there are a number of students at the University taking courses, including commercial subjects, and that in respect of those commercial subjects they could very well be catered for at the technical colleges, because we understand that students prefer to go there in the vast majority of cases. A great percentage of these students at the University would therefore go to the technical college, the apprentices would go also. The technical college would be part of the University—the Principal in charge would have the status of a University professor —and technology would form part, at least, of the work. The point which is making me uneasy about the proposal is the present state of development in New Zealand's industries. There is another point, but I think it could be provided for : we are all interested in the technical colleges and their relation to apprentices, and a number of people give their assistance, and I can see that their assistance should and could be retained for the college. The proposal is that really the work of the college would be changed in some respects, but certainly would be raised to a higher status. Could that fit in with our present arrangements or is it too ambitious or too far advanced for our present needs ? Would it hinder rather than help technical training generally ? Witness : I feel that the answer is that it is too ambitious for our present stage of development. Take London, for example : there you will find the Regent Street Polytechnic, the Borough Polytechnic, and the Chelsea Polytechnic. Although there is a tremendous field of work, they find it necessary to have day schools. The Regent Street Polytechnic has a very large day school, and so has the Borough Polytechnic ; they take boys and girls from the age of 13 upwards. When you have expensive buildings and you need to occupy fully a full-time staff, you must, I think, have young students. If the time was ripe in New Zealand for insisting on all young people engaged in industry up to the age of, say, 18 continuing their education during the daytime, then you could make full use of the buildings and staff. The subject is brought forward repeatedly at our conferences, but the representatives of the employers are unalterably opposed to any sort of daytime work.
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Mr. Fraser: With, the possible exception of Mr. Dick ? Witness : Yes. But the employers generally are opposed to it. Hon. Mr. Atmore : But as an objective to be aimed at by the Committee it would be desirable ? Witness: Yes. Hon. Mr. Atmore : I was previously dealing with Mr. Tate's report, in which it is stated that there are a number of pupils in technical schools not doing technical work ? Witness : Of course, it is a question of nomenclature. As the word " technical "is understood in England and in New Zealand, we in our schools are doing technical work, but not technological. The junior technical school at Home is doing the same work as we are doing, and the term stood by every one to mean what it does —it is not technological. Hon. Mr. Atmore: The fact that it is done in the Old Country as well as here does not mean that it is the last word in education ? Witness : No. lam speaking of the term itself. I say it is correct to call our schools technical schools. Mr. Fraser : What is the difference ? Witness : Technical education is education'which bears upon the crafts. Technological education is the science which bears upon the crafts. Hon. Mr. Atmore: You understand that this Committee has unanimously recommended the establishment in the larger cities of separate intermediate schools with parallel exploratory courses for boys and girls from 11 plus to 15 years of age. That will be in accordance with Mr. Tate's suggestions, will it not ? Witness : lam not sure about that. Ido not know that Mr. Tate was opposed to the attachment of such junior schools to senior schools. They have them in Victoria. He says that the technical high schools should concentrate upon preparatory technical courses so as to provide a sound basis for higher technical education and trade instruction, and that these schools and such junior technical schools as may be established should be worked in close co-operation with a technical school. My own strong feeling is that full-time day education should not be broken more than can be avoided between the ages of 11 and 17. I attach a good deal of importance to the influence of school life on character. I am sure it has a very great influence, and character, after all, is one of the in life. Hon. Mr. Atmore: Do you not think there is room in New Zealand, at least in the capital city, for a technological institute devoted entirely to higher technical work, and in some way related to the University college ? Witness : No, not at present. Hon. Mr. Atmore: I understand you are of opinion that it would be desirable, but not possible at present ? Witness: Not possible at present. It would imply that daytime education, part-time, was compulsory up to, say, 18 years of age. Hon. Mr. Atmore: Which is desirable. Witness : It is desirable, yes, but not possible, at the present stage of public opinion. It is an ideal —something to work for. Hon. Mr. Atmore The Committee is considering the linking-up of the teachers' training colleges with the University colleges in a similar way. Do you not think that by co-ordinating the work of these colleges better provision could be made also for the training of teachers on the technical side than at present exists ? Witness : No. At present I think not. The training colleges are of no use whatever for the training of technical teachers. Hon. Mr. Atmore : What training do the technical school trade teachers get under the existing conditions ? Witness : We have on our staff University men who have made a study from the technological side. Two men have engineering degrees, and we have one of the best industrial chemists on our staff ; but so far as our building, engineering, and practical trade instructors are concerned, their training is what they have had in their trades, and what they have had as being members of our staff ; one guides and helps as far as possible. But there are no preparatory or refresher courses—no provision is made for teachers to get toge ,her and confer on matters generally. Hon. Mr. Atmore: What do you think of the suggestion that has been made to the Committee that all teachers in technical colleges should, say, every five years, put in a period at the trades they are teaching ? Witness : It is not often enough for a trade like motor or electrical engineering. We had a meeting of the Advisory Committee last night, and the training of teachers was discussed. The committee considered there should be a refresher course for teachers every year, and that the trade instructor in any centre should be set free to go round the shops, say, once a month to ascertain the latest developments and to \eep in touch with what was going on in the industry. Hon. Mr. Atmorj: Briefly, the proposal now under consideration would mean the transference of your junior pupils to the ordinary high and intermediate high schools, and the transference to your college of the non-matriculated students now attending the University college. The technical college would enjoy a higher status. It would be controlled directly by a technological faculty composed much as your present governing body is, and your Apprenticeship Committees and other organizations would remain. The director would be a professor of the University and Dean of the Faculty, and the staff would rank with the University lecturers and demonstrators. The practical training of intending teachers of technical subjects 'would be a part of the work. Your evening classes would go on as usual. You see what the Committee is aiming at, do you not ?
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Witness: But we would have no day students unless there was compulsory attendance up to the age of 18. The number of our students, in all classes, who are over 16 years of age might be eighty—l doubt whether it would be more. With regard to apprentices—-they want to be apprentices by the time they have reached 16 years of age. Mr. Holland: A statement was made before the Committee that about one-half of the students in Canterbury College ought to be in the technical college. Would you subscribe to that statement ? Witness : Do you mean those in the School of Engineering ? Mr. Holland: I think the bald statement was made " Half the students in Canterbury College." Witness : No, Ido not agree. There may be more than half so far as numbers go, but not so far as hours of instruction go. The apprentices who go to Canterbury College go for four hours a week, as a rule. Mr. Holland: I take it you are in favour of boys being taken away from the shops to attend technical college. But in the case of teams working, each with a boy, if one or two boys are taken out of a shop to undergo training it would disorganize the work of the shop. Would that not act as a deterrent against the shops employing the boys ? Witness: It might, but the difficulty might be overcome by increasing the number of boys ; but then, I suppose, we should be up against the regulations regarding the number of apprentices that may be employed. If there are, say, five apprentices in a shop they could take it in turns to get away, one every day, and there would be no necessity to increase the number of apprentices. Hon. Mr. Atmore: But then the question would arise of whether we were not training too many men for the requirements of the business ? Witness: Yes, I suppose that would have to be regulated in some other way. Mr. Fraser : One objection is that the employers using the apprentices get the advantage of cheap labour once they have reached their second year. If every day one was away the work of the shop could go on just the same. The whole matter of the training of apprentices, plus their education, plus the need of apprentices for the trades, would have to be reviewed periodically ? Witness: Yes. Rev. Mr. Carr : You spoke of the limited demand for technologists. There is a tendency, I think, for instructors in the trade classes in technical colleges to be regarded as somewhat inferior to those instructors in other branches, some of whom may have obtained a degree. The status and the salaries of these trade instructors are on a lower level. One of the objects this Committee aims at is to raise the status of instructors in technical schools. If these instructors had the opportunity of getting more technological instruction they would inevitably reach that standard of recognition that we desire for them, and that, to my mind, is an argument in favour of a greater need for technologists. There is another aspect. Do you not think that by closer co-operation the technological work in the technical colleges and the same work in the Universityjnight be brought nearer together, and that that could best be achieved by unified control ? Witness : I cannot see that there will be the demand in New Zealand for years to come for technologists in greater numbers than we are providing at present. You do not want technologists for workshop instruction. The difference in status referred to is only felt in the case of workshop instructors, and that could easily be removed by the changes your Committee proposes to make in the grading, and the recognition of their work in terms of salary. So far as status in the college is concerned, there is no difference. Our trade instructors are on quite as good a footing as any of the other instructors—their work is so valuable. Rev. Mr. Carr: Does not the lack of a degree sometimes affect their salaries ? Witness : No, it is the grading system which affects their salaries. Rev. Mr. Carr : But a degree comes in to that ? Witness : To some extent, yes. Mr. Fraser: If the technical college were attached to the University would not that have some tendency to raise the whole conception of technical and industrial work, and give a status to the pupils which would be an inducement for them to become more perfect —-it would tend to level up, which is the fundamental factor in economic life ? Witness : I quite agree that it would do so, provided we had the students. The of students seems to be the difficulty. The Chairman : The actual fact is that there is no lack of higher technical instruction in New Zealand ; the present institutions are meeting all the claims made for higher education ? Witness: We could meet a good deal more. The Chairman: With reference to the distinction drawn by Mr. Tate in his report between technical high schools and technical colleges, I take it that is more imaginary than real. He claimed that the present institutions had degenerated into institutions which taught purely technical instead of the higher education ? Witness: Ido not think his contention is justified. We are meeting the demands of to-day — not, perhaps, altogether the needs. The Chairman: The demand is measured by the development of trade ? Witness : Yes, and the general intelligence and education of the people. The Chairman : That creates the demand ? Witness: Yes. The Chairman : Would the change suggested by the proposed recommendation No. 11, a copy of which has been handed to you, involve any serious increase in expenditure ? Witness: Well, it seems to me there would be very little use for our building during the day time.
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The Chairman: Apart from the motor engineering classes, are there other classes at the technical college—such as, for instance, building, domestic science, chemistry, and the like —which could receive recognition if a student attended later at the University ? Could we encourage or develop any branch of technical education if it were recognized at the University ? Witness : lam very doubtful. Take, for instance, the recent development on the arts side. It has meant very little increase in demand. The Chairman : Take the case of the girls. Could we attract a larger number of our girls with the object of taking a degree, if they were actually attending a branch of the University 1 Witness: The encouragement depends upon the teacher and the kind of teaching, whether it is done at the University or the technical college. We have first-class teachers on the commercial side, and because we have first-class teachers there our classes are successful —more successful than similar classes at the University. There is not an abler teacher of home science and all that pertains to the management of the home than Miss Rennie. She has a great influence on her pupils. Miss Rennie has two evening classes, and we could occupy her more fully by dividing her class, but still there are only about fifty who come to us in the evening to take advantage of Miss Rennie's instruction. So far as chemical technology is concerned, Mr. Glendining (?) can give the pupils anything they want, but his evening class is limited to fourteen. The Chairman : Then you think the influence of Miss Rennie, or the benefits of these classes, would not be extended if the status of the institution were raised and made a branch of the University ? Witness : I do not think so. Extract prom the Evidence oe Dr. D. E. Hansen, M.Sc., D.lng., Director, Christchurch Technical Colleges. Technical high schools in the larger towns, at any rate, do lose most of their pupils after shorter courses and at an earlier age than the academic high schools do. This is due to no fault of the schools or to the loss of interest on the part of the pupils. They are from families of small means but considerable enthusiasm for education, who have to earn at a fairly early age. They also largely take up trade work for which apprentices should not be more than 16 years of age. Their interest in their studies is indicated by the fact that the great majority join up with the evening school when they leave the day classes. The value of even their short courses in the day school is shown by the fact that the top half of each evening class is composed mainly of lads who have started their courses in our day school. In these circumstances I cannot support the suggestion that the " waste is appalling." Perhaps I would not consider the position so satisfactory if we had no evening school for them to attend. I would prefer to see higher technical work carried on by the technical colleges as far as they can go, with provision for recognition to be given by the University to their work. The New Zealand University colleges, possibly in order to maintain a staff of reasonable strength, now undertake a certain amount of instruction that is not really University work. Under this heading I would classify accountancy, a great deal of the engineering work, a great deal of the home-science training, pharmacy &c. In fact, most of our University colleges might be considered a combination of a University proper and a technological institute. If the latter side were removed, it would weaken materially the staffing of the whole institution. I have no desire to see the University in control of higher technical education in New Zealand. So far as it has gone, technical education is more vitally alive than any other branch in this country, and its control by the conservative University of New Zealand would be undesirable. The University Council and the Technical School Board have control of institutions whose aims, types of student, &c., differ widely. Merely to secure co-ordination of the engineering courses need not involve the establishment of one and the same controlling Board. Much of the work of each institution would possibly suffer if one Board only were provided for the two institutions. If the technical school desires recognition of the work that it does in any department (and there would not be many departments interested) it should submit a syllabus of instruction to be followed for approval by the University college concerned. On the other hand, the University should be required to recognize any work that is carried out according to an approved syllabus in any technical college with suitable equipment and qualified instructors. An approach has been made to me from Canterbury College, unofficially however, with an offer to approve certain of our courses of instruction for non-matriculated students in the evening engineering classes and for the elementary students at Canterbury College to be handed over to our college for instruction. Apparently, however, we would be expected to hand over all our engineering students after their second year in the evening school to Canterbury College if this course were adopted. The net result would have been that we should have had a large influx of elementary students in addition to the large number that we have already, and we should have lost the best students when they had an opportunity of going on to senior work. As we consider our school nearly as capable of handling the non-matriculated student as Canterbury College is, even in the advanced stages of their work, and as very many students have a personal preference for our methods of instruction, the negotiations did not progress very far. A considerable measure of recognition has been given to our students who go on to Canterbury College, but an official basis on which it should be granted has never been worked out. Many of the teachers on the technical side of our schools are drawn from the industries, &c., and, as pointed out by Mr. Tate, they make the best teachers. It is quite unsatisfactory to place the teaching of book-keeping to commercial students in the hands of a person who has not had business experience. We are also finding it desirable that in the evening school such subjects as trade mathematics, physics, mechanics, &c., should be taught by men who have served in the engineering trade.
Evidence of Director, Christchurch Technical College.
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All of our teachers on the technical side have had trade or business experience. Frequently they are appointed on trial as assistants to qualified teachers. If they prove suitable from the point of view of personality and teaching ability, they are given increased responsibility, and finally may become full-time instructors. If they are not suitable, they are dropped. In some cases instructors regarded as suitable have received lectures on methods of teaching in our own school. The proposal to transfer our students to intermediate and high schools and to constitute our college, so far as the day-work is concerned, a technological institute with University connection does not appear to me to any extent as being economical or as likely to fill any great need. Our universities are half empty or worse, in the daytime : they have a teaching year in most faculties of less than thirty weeks, and their expensive buildings and equipment stand idle for nearly half the year. The proposal to remove a number of their students so that their buildings and plant will be even less used appears to me to be in the wrong direction. The proposed arrangement would give our college practically no students in the daytime and an almost impossible number at night. We could not maintain a capable staff for night-work only, for it would allow us only a few full-time instructors. The best work is undoubtedly done by fulltime teachers. The composition of the Technical College Boards is almost ideal for the purposes of technical education, and I should be sorry to see it altered. At the same time, it might be improved by the addition in the four centres of a representative of the University. Technical high schools have developed in a way that must be a revelation to educational authorities. Why should they be done away with ? And why should we leave their buildings stand vacant when they provide room and equipment for vocational high schools ? The training college is of little assistance, as it works at present, for the training of teachers for the technical side. It is possible that in one or two branches the training would be better if the universities and the training colleges worked more closely together. After the most careful consideration of the above and other evidence, and full discussion of the matter from every angle, the Committee came to the conclusion that the technical high schools and colleges as at present constituted are doing excellent work in the community, which it feels ought to be not only maintained but extended. This extension it desires to see take place in two directions, particularly in the four chief centres —viz., the development of (a) the day training of apprentices, and (b) classes for higher technical education. The Committee recognizes the formidable difficulties that require to be overcome in order to accomplish both these objectives, but is of opinion that they should be definitely set down as ideals to be aimed at. With regard to (a), there are gratifying signs that employers will, especially if given a lead by the Government, come to see the benefit, both to themselves and to their apprentices, of allowing the latter limited time off to attend technical classes in the daytime; and the Committee trusts that the Government will do everything in its power to set a right example in this matter. In this connection the Committee is of opinion that the Schools of Mines at present conducted by the Mines Department should be transferred to the Education Department and co-ordinated with the rest of the education system. With regard to (b), the Committee is of opinion that some definite scheme should be devised by which the unnecessary and wasteful competition and duplication of services between the University colleges and the technical colleges as at present organized should be brought to an end. In order to obviate this it is proposed that in each of the four chief centres there should be mutual representation of the University College Council upon the Technical College Council, and vice versa ; and that in order to enable matters of common interest to be dealt with satisfactorily the two Councils should set up a joint Advisory Committee, upon which members common to both should be included. Such committee would have no executive powers, but would be able to advise both Councils upon the best methods to be adopted to ensure co-ordination and correlation of services. Prominent amongst these the Committee believes, would be the transference of the non-matriculated students of the University colleges as far as practicable, to the technical colleges, with provision for the recognition by the University of technical work of approved standard done therein, should the students concerned subsequently matriculate and desire to proceed to degrees. With a view to this end, the Committee is of opinion that there should be established a Faculty of Technical Education along the lines of the Technical Schools Board recommended by the Tate Report, and since repeatedly desiderated by the Technical School Teachers' Association, and suggests that to this Faculty should be entrusted the control and conduct of all technological examinations in New Zealand.
Need for higher technical education.
Day training of apprentices desirable.
Schools of Mines to be transferred to Education Department. Co-ordination necessary.
Mutual representation of University and Technical Colleges on governing bodies.
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Recommendations,
The Committee therefore recommends— (15) (a) That, subject to the changes in administration recommended in Section 2 of this report, the existing Boards of Governors of the technical colleges he continued as Technical College Councils, together with their associated Apprenticeship and other committees. (b) That every effort be made to develop the technical colleges as institutions for higher technical education for adults and adolescents in employment, and for the training of apprentices. (c) That the Schools of Mines at present under the control of the Department of Mines should be transferred to the Education Department and their work co-ordinated with that of the technical colleges. (d) That the non-matriculated students of the University colleges be transferred as far as is practicable to the technical colleges, with provision for the recognition of technical work done therein, in the event of students subsequently matriculating and desiring to proceed to degrees. (e) That in each of the four chief centres an approved number of members of the University College Council be appointed to membership of the Technical College Council, and vice versa; and that a joint Advisory Committee be set up by both Councils to consider and advise upon matters of common interest. (/) That the Universities of Northern and Southern New Zealand should each set up a Faculty of Technical Education to advise upon all applications by technical colleges for University recognition of courses, and to arrange for the joint conduct of all technological examinations in New Zealand. CHAPTER XV. —SCHOOL LEAVING CERTIFICATES AND UNIVERSITY ENTRANCE EXAMINATION. The termination of primary education at the age of 11 plus ; the institution of compulsory post-primary education to 15 years, with parallel exploratory courses, followed by further diversified courses in the senior high and technical high schools ; and the institution of a wholly internal examination system in the field of University education ana teacher training —all these great reforms, which are in thorough harmony with enlightened educational developments the world over, would be rendered completely valueless it they were not accompanied by a thorough revision of the methods of assessment and certification of school-work, whether for the purpose of entry into employment or into the University. To embark upon a detailed description of the elaborate examination and certification machinery of the old regime, now happily in process of complete reformation, is unnecessary. What seems to the Committee to be wanted is a forward-looking scheme of a definite character, consistent in every respect with the abovementioned reforms, and such as may reasonably offer a practical basis for the immediate reorganization of this important branch of educational work. To traverse the whole of the evidence upon these matters is impossible. Whereever the Committee pursued its investigations the urgent need for this reform was
Need for Review.
Widespread desire or reform.
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made manifest. From the abundant expressions of opinion regarding the need and the best mode of meeting it the following representative opinions have been selected : — Eepresentative Opinions of Educationists relating to School Certificates and Examinations. Mr. W. A. Armour, M.A., M.Sc., President, Secondary Schools Association. —The association is in favour of the accrediting system, and has been for some years. I would say with regard to the accrediting system that the association as a whole is in favour of it. There are many Principals and assistants in the association who are not in favour of it —it is not by any means the unanimous opinion of the association that the accrediting system is the best —but the association has carried resolutions in favour, by a majority, and therefore as an association we must advocate it. Rev. H. K. Archdall, M.A., President, Registered Secondary Schools Association. —We regret the tendency to grant matriculation, either by examination or accrediting, to students after they have been at a secondary school for three years. We believe that this will inevitably end in a lowering of the standard of University education in general. If the course is four years, as is stated, we do not think that anything less should be recognized. We would like to see further response to the suggestions made by Mr. Tate, of the Victorian Education Department, and laid down in the report of the Royal Commission on University Education in New Zealand. In particular, we would venture to stress the desirability of the setting up in this Dominion of something like the School Board in Victoria. There a special Board is set up, comprising the representatives of the University, the State schools, and the non-State schools, in equal proportions, with an impartial Chairman, and one representative of the business community, and to this Board is given the whole business of general control of the examinations, both for the University Entrance and inside the schools, and subsidiary to this School Board are a number of subject committees. The head of each subject committee is the professor of the subject in the University, and he is assisted by special qualified teachers, and it is their business to keep in touch both with the examiners and with the teachers teaching their subject. We believe that some such system can at once leave reasonable freedom to the three contracting parties and consult the common interest of the community. At any rate, it is much better than anything we have in New Zealand, in our opinion. Rev. Bro. Benignus, Rector, Sacred Heart College, Auckland. —From one point of view we do not favour the accrediting system straight out. What we would like to advert to is a closer co-operation between the examining and the teaching bodies. Under the present system the teachers have no voice in the awarding of passes to their candidates, and who' know better what the boy or girl is able to do 1 The headmaster or headmistress has had a boy for, say, four years. They know their ability and what they can do. When it comes to an examination a boy or girl candidate might not be fit physically. A candidate may have struck an unusually hard question and goes down, although the teacher might know that that boy or girl is well up to standard. We would like a system in which the teacher plays an important part and has an important say in the granting of a pass. Rev. Father T. A. Gilbert, S.M., M.A., Rector, St. Bede's College, Christchurch. —I would like to say this : that the public here seems to be examination mad. There is no greater nuisance to any schoolteacher than to have excellent parents come to you and tell you you must get their child to pass the Matriculation Examination. It is such a pitiful thing —the parents do not seem to want anything else. Mr. M. K. McCulloch, M.A., Acting-Rector, WaitaH Boys' High School, Oamaru.—l prefer the system of accrediting. It would be harder on us, but there is no doubt that great injustice is done by Matriculation Examinations. We can estimate a boy's worth correctly. It often happens in my experience that a bright boy fails inexplicably in an examination, and that a generally dull boy will beat him in an examination. Mr. J. Stewart, M.A., Principal, Marlborough High School, Blenheim.—l think there should be a combination of both. I think the better pupils who are fit to pass on their school record might be accredited, just the same as the senior free-place and proficiency pupils are treated now. Ido not see why the system should not be extended to the University. I think a system of accrediting might be introduced, but not holus-bolus —-only in a modified, form. I think there will always be a necessity for examination, and I would not like to have the onus thrown on me to say whether a boy should go to the University or not. I think it is too big a responsibility to throw on the headmaster, but a modified form might be introduced. Mr. F. A. Snell, Chairman, Board of Managers, Hamilton Technical High School.—The Board considered that the lure of matriculation has had much to do with the desire for academic education. This examination is being used as representing a certain standard of education, and not for its real purpose, entrance to the University, for which it may probably be suitable. Many parents send their children to secondary schools solely with the object of securing this examination as a certificate for employment. They soon find that its attainment is not suited to their abilities, and during their first and second year they drop out, having obtained nothing except the indirect benefit of having attended school a year or two longer, and this often to their distinct disadvantage as far as their work is concerned. As far as the technical high school pupils are concerned, matriculation operates in the reverse way. The curriculum of the schools is not suited to the matriculation course, and many of the children who have attained a standard of education of equal merit, and who would often with little difficulty matriculate, are deprived of the advantages of such a certificate. With the development of technical high schools we believe that the time has arrived when the Education Department should institute a 7*
Opinions of New Zealand educationists.
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leaving certificate which would represent a like standard of education and which would suit the curriculum of all schools. To establish the status of such a certificate it might- be necessary to restrict credit in matriculation only to those actually intending to enter on a University education. The fact that not more than 4 per cent, of the pupils leaving post-primary schools actually make use of the Matriculation Examination for the purpose for which it is intended is sufficient evidence that the Matriculation Examination should not be allowed to dominate the curriculum of our post-primary schools as it has done in the past. Mr. Robert S. Sage, Chairman, Board of Managers, Hawera Technical High School. —The University Senate inaugurated the Matriculation Examination, or Entrance Examination as it is now called, purely as an assurance that students entering the University had attained a required standard in the various subjects of their course. The University authorities never intended candidates to take this examination for the multifarious reasons existing now, and, consequently, since the majority of students who sit for the examination have no intention of entering the University, no one can blame those authorities if the examination has become the end of a secondary-school course. Hence the demand to broaden the scope of the matriculation syllabus, although it is perfectly justified if it is regarded as a finishing examination, is hardly in order when addressed to the governing body of the University, who regard it purely as an entrance examination. There seems no valid reason why the University authorities should not conduct their entrance examination in the way they think best. The question then arises as to what shall take the place of the Matriculation Examination as a leaving examination for secondary schools, and there seems only one answer—viz., that the Education Department must set up an examination of equal standard but on a much broader basis, including a full quota of optional technical subjects for those students who wish to follow the career of artisans. Especially should there be a leaving examination in subjects pertaining to agriculture, dairying and sheepfarming. A boy who has had four years at a secondary school and has obtained the Department's diploma in agriculture subjects would be of more value on a farm than one who had followed merely a literary course. The matriculation is looked on as justifying a hall-mark of a certain standard of education. Let the Education Department set up its own examination and issue its own diplomas, and soon the country will come to recognize the value of these diplomas as an entrance examination to various professions, and they will carry the same weight as the matriculation does now. The Committee was particularly impressed by the wholly admirable statement of the problem presented by a member of the staff of the Sacred Heart Girls' College, Christchurch, who had recently visited and studied the systems in operation in Great Britain and Europe, and from whose evidence the following extract is taken : — Extract prom the Evidence op an Experienced Member op the Stapp op the Sacred Heart Girls' College, Christchurch. We often hear it said nowadays that our system is " too academic." " Stereotyped by a rigid examination system " would be a more correct designation. With the Sixth Standard in our primary schools extraneous examinations commence, and with them the most unsatisfactory part of our school system. The drilling for " Proficiency " has become a fine art with our most successful but not necessarily our best Standard VI teachers. Many people, parents in particular, look upon examinations as a necessary evil. But that progress can be just as effective without them, or rather more so, is proved by the fact that the most satisfactory part of our present system, even from the parents' point, of view, is that up to the end of the Fifth Standard, which has now been for some years free from extraneous examinations. These latter savour so much of the " hit and miss " style of the days of trial by ordeal, and we have had, moreover, so much experience of their inadequacy and injustice, that one wonders greatly why reasonable people should have tolerated them so long. Test work within the class will always be necessary and beneficial, but that is quite another matter. There is little need to demonstrate the absurdity of allowing a University entrance examination to dominate the education system of a very great percentage of pupils who will never need it. Everywhere there exists among our people a vague apprehension that this examination has been one of the main causes of the failure of our education system ; and this apprehension is only too well founded. The outcry, however, should not be so much against the examination in itself, provided it is confined to its proper purposes, but against the supineness of the educational authorities who have all these years allowed what was meant for a special and restricted purpose to become to all intents and purposes the chief objective of our secondary-school course. Even the University authorities, who have so often lamented the inadequacy of this examination for its proper purpose— i.e., the choice of suitable candidates for a University course —have yet continually bowed to the popular demand for some attestation of the work done by pupils in our secondary schools, and so have relieved the school authorities of the trouble of finding their own proper solution of what is indeed an urgent problem. Meanwhile no good has come to our children out of the dual contest between two such divergent aims—the see-saw between a University that wants candidates of special qualifications, and a general public that has work for all, provided only they are sufficiently labelled to be placed with a minimum of difficulty. The University has made more strenuous efforts of recent years to gain its own purpose. Last year out of 4,583 candidates for the Matriculation Examination only 1,936 obtained passes ; in other words, 2,647 of our young people forfeited 5,294 guineas for the depressing satisfaction of proving themselves failures in a public examination. And year after year the results are similar. Surely such a system stands self-condemned. The result has been that the hopelessness of obtaining a reasonable recognition of their secondary work under the examination system as conducted at present has driven
Evidence of member of staff of Sacred Heart College.
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the majority of pupils of ordinary ability, and with them many more highly endowed, into technical colleges or into the commercial courses which other secondary schools have had to provide to prevent depletion. In this way our young people —the ruling factor in most homes nowadays —have taken the remedy into their own hands, with the result that the high percentage of post-primary pupils who avoid the prescribed examinations by taking commercial and other such courses is truly disconcerting, especially when we remember that in 1923 each free-place'secondary pupil cost the country £23 4s. lid. ; and no doubt the amount has since become still higher. If this unfortunate result is not giving a bias in favour of the lower-grade occupations of town life, it is certainly not giving a cultural bias. And if, as has been very truly said, the problem of keeping our people from crowding into the towns is, above all, a psychological one, have we not here in great part the cause of our failure ? • That the proposal to eliminate extraneous examinations from our school course is not chimerical is proved by the experience of Germany and America. Although for many years all secondary schools in Germany have been free from examinations, except those conducted by the school authorities, there has been a decided increase in the working-power and success of these schools. Nor are they subjected to inspection in any adequate sense, yet large programmes of work are as faithfully carried out and there is as much study and repetition writing and correcting of work as if some important endowment were at stake. The source of all this pressure of work is from within. The school is autonomous, but the teachers are under the jealous eyes of the pupils' parents, who on the least suspicion of negligence lodge a complaint with the Director. The teachers of the second or any higher year can tell by the ordinary class-work whether the teachers of the preceding year have done their duty or not. Thus a great school system gets its driving-power not from external examinations and inspection, but from internal professional pride. The spirit of autonomous work in the German secondary schools, with its sensitiveness to any imputation of remissness, is of comparatively recent date, and is not due to any special characteristics. It is due to psychological forces which are ours as much as theirs, and which we, too, if we wish it, can set in motion with the same success. " There is no more striking example of the difference between efficiency and clumsy failure," says Professor Findlay, " than to contrast what is called the English examination system with the autonomous system that has been substituted for it in Germany. No doubt, under the primitive conditions which prevailed fifty years ago, when general scholarship had not reached a high level and the credit of teachers was low, the examination system served a useful purpose, but the continuation of such primitive machinery is altogether deplorable." Scaffolding is essential in the erection of a building, but becomes a disfigurement if retained any longer than necessary. " The system of credits regulates all schooling in the United States of America, from infants to University," reports a recent visitor to that country. " Each pupil's promotion depends primarily on his or her teacher. But far from this lowering the standard of work done, in either the primary or the secondary schools, experience is proving that a much higher-grade level is reached than formerly. The reputation of each school depends upon the satisfaction given by its alumni when they reach the next higher grade, the University included ; and so greatly does the good name of a school depend upon the quality rather than the quantity of its output that, far from pushing on pupils indiscriminately, the tendency is rather to hold back the doubtful for another year, lest the school suffer in its reputation." Elimination of Examinations. —The supplying of suitable curricula for our schools is comparatively easy ;itis in the carrying-out of them that the difficulty lies, and this will never be until we substitute for our present examinations a system of increased inspection, or, as the Americans prefer to call it, " supervision." This, together with a system of granting certificates of attendance and merit in individual subjects, on the plan adopted in schools of more progressive educational countries, would undoubtedly raise the standard of work in our post-primary schools, and at the same time give both our pupils and the general public a reliable guarantee of the work done in each individual case. " The far-seeing German statesman," says Professor Findlay, " who, early in the nineteenth century, recast the education of their people, foresaw that the best incentive to industry at school would be to train the people to appreciate a leaving certificate, and in this they set an example to the world at large." Certificates of Merit. —These, if drawn up on the Scotch plan, would be made out in triplicate, the vacant spaces, no doubt, having the psychological effect of arousing a desire to remain at school until the whole certificate could be filled in. The percentage of marks is placed beside the name of the subjects taken, and a short general remark as to ability and industry appended. The granting of these certificates should be in the hands of the teachers of approved schools, equivalent to our present public and registered schools ; in schools not so approved the grants to be made by the teachers in conjunction with the Inspectors. The public will soon become accustomed to looking for these certificates as a test of an applicant's fitness for their purpose, and no teacher would run the gauntlet of the inevitable exposure which would follow the granting of a higher percentage of marks than actual practice would later on show to be warranted. These marks, like the ordinary run of testimonials, would probably be more enlightening in what they omitted. In any case, the support of the Inspectors would safeguard the teachers from the demands of unreasonable parents, &c. A very important point is that, these marks being individual, there is not room for the invidious comparisons which now accompany an examination system that is capable of categorizing its candidates, no matter what their ability or diversity, into two rigid classes only—passes and failures. In view of the manifest need for reform disclosed by the above and similar evidence, and with an earnest desire to offer some practical suggestions to meet that need, the Committee closely examined the systems in operation in Great
Information supplied by Director of Education of Victoria.
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Britain, America, and Australia. In this connection it received very valuable assistance from correspondence which the Director of Education, Mr. T. B. Strong, M.A., M.Sc., has had with the Director of Education of Victoria, Mr. M. P. Hansen, M.A., LL.B., since his recent visit to Australia to attend the triennial Directors' Conference there. In response to Mr. Strong's questionnaire, which is incorporated in the reply, Mr. Hansen described the dual system of examination and accrediting in vogue in Victoria as follows : — Letter of the Director oe Education of Victoria, Mr. M. P. Hansen, M.A., LL.B., to the Director of Education of New Zealand. Education Office, Melbourne, 18th July, 1930. Dear Mr. Strong,— The information you require on certain special points in connection with the accrediting system is as follows (1) " Are students accredited by the Melbourne University for matriculation accepted for matriculation by other universities in Australia and by universities abroad ? " Matriculation at the Melbourne University is generally accepted by other universities. They accept the school leaving certificate issued whether it has been obtained under the approval system or by external examination. Two exceptions to this rule have occurred : Matriculation has been refused to accredited students by (i) University of Sydney, (ii) University of Oxford. This action seems to be wrong in principle. These universities either should approve or disapprove of the matriculation requirements of the University of Melbourne. If they are satisfied with the standard required, it is a matter for the University of Melbourne to make its internal arrangements for maintaining that standard. The action of Sydney, which occurred for the first time last year, was based on some old regulation. The action in Oxford is probably more concerned with the accrediting system in the United States of America and has been extended to Melbourne by analogy. (2) " Do other examining bodies —say, those connected with the profession of law, accountancy, and medicine —accept accredited matriculated students for their own entrance qualification, or do they still prescribe that the candidate must have actually passed an examination ? " No difficulty has arisen in connection with any other examining body so far as I know. These all accept the leaving certificate issued by the Melbourne University, and the question as to whether it has been obtained under the approval system or by external examination has never been raised. (3) " Is the Victorian Leaving Certificate Examination taken by accredited students—in other words, is it part of the accrediting system ? If it is, are accredited students awarded the leaving certificate either at the pass stage or at the honours stage ? " Schools are accredited to present candidates, by headmaster's certificate, either at the intermediate or leaving stages, or at both. They do not have to sit for the external examination, but the University issues passes in the various subjects on the evidence of the headmaster's certificate which shows, for intermediate certificate— (a) That he has pursued all the subjects of an approved course of studies for a period of not less than three years, or, in cases approved by the Board, for not less than two years ; (b) That he has made satisfactory progress in them ; and (c) That he has reached the standard of the School Intermediate Examination in at least six subjects, including English, a branch of mathematics or science, and either one other language or British history and civics ; and for leaving certificate —■ (a) That subsequent to completing the course for the intermediate certificate and obtaining credit for not less than four subjects therefor he has pursued all the subjects of an approved course of study for one year ; (b) That he has made satisfactory progress in them ; and (c) That he has reached the standard of the School Leaving Examination in at least five subjects including English ; Provided in every case that at some School Intermediate or Leaving Examination the candidate has passed in or produced a headmaster's certificate for a language other than English. N.B. —Eor matriculation a candidate must obtain the school leaving certificate, and at some School Leaving Examination pass in or produce a headmaster's certificate for a language other than English and a branch either of mathematics or of science. (For matriculation, only one of the subjects, agricultural science, domestic science, and arts may be included in the five subjects on which the school leaving certificate is obtained.) All candidates must take leaving-certificate honours at the external examination.; there is noaccrediting for honours. In the competition for Senior Scholarships points are. given for passes in the Leaving Examination, either on the headmaster's certificate or on external examinations only. You will thus see that the University issues school intermediate and leaving certificates after having obtained satisfactory certificate and report from the headmaster of the approved school. Students from schools not approved sit for external examinations. It is the duty of the Inspectors to see that the standards maintained in approved schools are equivalent to those of the external examinations. In most cases they are higher. (4) " How many Inspectors of Secondary Schools are needed to carry out the accrediting system ? "
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Six Inspectors are required to do the work of the accrediting system. In addition to this they carry out the following work : —■ For the Department — (а) Inspection of all departmental secondary schools (other than technical) : (б) Inspection of all schools approved for attendance by holders of scholarships granted by the Minister for Public Instruction : (c) Administrative work in connection with sites, buildings, equipment, appointments, promotion, and transfer of teachers for secondary schools under the Education Department: (d) Administrative work in connection with scholarships. For the Council of Public Education— (а) Inspection of training institutions for teachers seeking registration, and examination of students in training : (б) Inspection of registered schools applying for registration as primary or secondary schools. For the University — Inspection of the teaching of laboratory-work in physics, physical science, chemistry, and botany. (4a) " How many schools are inspected by the Secondary inspectorial staff, and how many of these participate in the accrediting system ? " Number of schools inspected : For the University—lntermediate, twenty-four (eighteen high schools and six registered secondary schools) ; leaving, ten (four high schools and six registered secondary schools). For the Department—Thirty-seven high schools, fifty higher elementary schools, twenty-five central schools, and seven central classes. The thirty-seven high schools include the eighteen inspected for the University. These schools are all inspected annually, but a report is furnished to the University only once in three years in normal circumstances. The registered secondary schools are inspected at least once in every three years, and a report forwarded to the University after each inspection. (4b) " Is it optional for a school to elect to have its candidates accredited for matriculation, or is this a matter that is decided by the University or by the Department on the advice of its Inspectors ? " A school may apply to the Schools Board for inspection, and after inspection and reports the Schools Board may allow pupils taking such course or courses as are approved to be placed in Class A. (See Handbook, pages 31, 32, and 33.) After the school has applied, the matter is decided by the University Schools Board on the advice of its Inspectors. In addition to the six full-time Inspectors mentioned, who have been approved by the University, part-time Inspectors are used in connection with commercial subjects and occasionally have been used for art subjects. (5) " Does the University make any contribution towards the salaries of Inspectors who carry out the accrediting system ? " The University pays £500 per annum towards the cost of the three additional Inspectors appointed in 1925. In addition to this, the Inspectors may, when necessary, obtain the services of the first examiner appointed by the Schools Board for any subject not fully covered by the Secondary Inspectors. Up to the present this has been used mainly for commercial work. The fee paid by the University in this case is £2 2s. per school for reporting on examination-papers only. Under the approval system the University is relieved of the work of examining over one thousand students at the intermediate stage and about one thousand students annually at the leaving-certificate stage. The fee charged for the school intermediate certificate obtained under the system of approval is 10s. 6d., and that for matriculation, which includes leaving certificate, £1 Is. Under separate cover I am forwarding a copy of the " Handbook of the Public Examinations of the University of Melbourne," a copy of my own report on the approval system, issued two years ago, and a copy of the Educational Supplement of the Times, which contains a review of the latter. I trust that this information will be what you require. I have, &c., M. P. Hansen, Director. T. B. Strong, Esq., Director of Education, Education Department, Wellington, New Zealand. Included amongst the material forwarded by Mr. Hansen were the following, which the Committee found of the greatest value and assistance in its consideration of this matter (1) " Handbook of Public Examinations of the University of Melbourne, together with Recommendations for School Courses." This is a complete syllabus of diversified secondary school courses as prepared by the Schools Board of the University, and contains the provisions of the University for matriculation either by accrediting from " approved " schools or by examination.
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(2) " Public Examinations and Approval of Secondary School Courses in Victoria." A report by Mr. Hansen upon the institution of the accrediting system in 1916 and its subsequent working, published by the University of Melbourne in 1928. (3) Reports by Mr. Hansen upon systems of accrediting in the United States of America, and upon the Leaving Certificate Examination of the Scottish Education Department. Extensive citations from these timely contributions to the solution of a problem which is being grappled with in all modern countries cannot be made here, but the underlying principles of the systems in operation in Scotland and the United States of America can be succinctly stated. In 1922 the Scottish Education Department reduced the number of its formal school examinations and certificates from four to two, entry to the post-primary stage being put upon an internal examination basis, and formal examination retained at two subsequent stages only —one upon the completion of a three-year approved intermediate course ; the other upon the completion of a further two or three years of secondary education, at approximately 17 to 18 eighteen years of age. A most important provision is that "no certificate will be granted or withheld without consultation with the teachers and headmaster on the whole range of work of each candidate." In science, drawing, music, and domestic science no written examinations are held, and candidates are examined orally and practically by the Inspectors at the schools. The general principle underlying the American system is the complete abandonment of external examinations, and the institution of an accrediting system which relies almost wholly upon the following safeguard: The College Entrance Board, after satisfying itself as to the suitability of a school with respect to buildings, equipment, staffing, and courses of instruction, grants provisional right of accrediting entrants to the University, and invites the school to send forward two or three accredited pupils "on trial." Should these prove satisfactory, the right is continued provisionally until the Board feels itself in a position to confirm it for a definite period. Any deterioration in the calibre or fitness of the entrants speedily brings a warning from the Board, and, if repeated, the cancellation of the right to accredit pupils of the school to the University. Thus upon both the school Principal and the undergraduate the onus is thrown of maintaining the honour of the school by keeping the standards as high as possible. In addition to these schemes, the Committee gave consideration to schemes which have been formulated by various New Zealand educational bodies, including the University Entrance Board, the Education Department, the Secondary Schools Association, the Technical Schools Association, and the Registered Secondary Schools Association. After exhaustive discussion of the whole matter from all points of view, the Committee has formulated a scheme which, in its opinion, embodies the best features of all those which it has had placed before it, without including at least their more manifest defects. It is assumed that, with the extension of free (compulsory education to the age of 15 years, and the institution of a system of age promotion to and through the intermediate stage, the old Proficiency Examination and certificate will disappear. The Committee desires to express strong approval of the new primary-schools individual progress-card, on which record is kept not only of scholastic progress, but of physical development, participation in games, and general character-building. Realizing that education is a continuous process, it desires to see this system extended through the intermediate and senior stages, and the records so kept used as the basis for the issue of internally granted school certificates at two stages, as in Scotland—viz., at the termination of the compulsory school age, and at the termination of the senior high school course. The former certificate it recommends should be called the " school leaving certificate," believing that the word " lower " is quite unnecessary, and tends to impair the value of the certificate given. Contrary to the usual practice of giving no certificate at all to those pupils who fail to reach the standard prescribed—in many cases genuine border-line cases, who consequently have nothing at all to show for a long stretch of quite faithful work —the Committee recommends that every pupil should receive a departmental school certificate, as
The Scottish system,
The American system.
Consideration of accrediting schemes,
School Leaving Certificates.
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the case may be, upon leaving school. These, it is proposed, should be in three grades, A, B, and C, the first being reserved for excellent achievement, equivalent to honours standard ; the second for a satisfactory pass , , and the third for those who by reason of inability to reach the required standard, perhaps, in some compulsory subject, or from whatever cause, fail to secure a " pass." These certificates of Grade C, the Committee proposes, will show on their "face what the pupils have actually accomplished ; they will, at least in many cases, afford evidence of conscientious work, often of high standard, in special subjects for which the holders have discovered and developed special aptitudes such as will lead to congenial and successful employment, the opportunity of which they would probably not have had under the old two-class " pass or fail" system. The Committee further recommends that the present Senior Free Place Examination barrier be removed, and that senior as well as intermediate education should be free to all who are in a position to benefit from it, with this proviso : that holders of Grade C certificates should not be permitted at the expense of the State to embark upon courses for which their school record and leaving certificate show they are unsuited. In such cases alone, if parents insist in their undertaking such work, the Committe is of opinion that school fees should be charged. Provision is made that in the event of a pupil continuing beyond the compulsory school age, but not long enough to secure a higher leaving certificate, endorsement of the additional work done and the standard therein achieved be made upon his or her school leaving certificate. In cases where certificates of Grade C are awarded by the Principal of a school, right of appeal is allowed to the District Superintendent of schools, who may, if he considers the case a genuine border-line one, authorize the pupil to be specially examined. The object of such a course is to obviate the formal examination of candidates who are definitely below standard, while at the same time affording a second chance to those whose cases merit such consideration. The standard of the higher leaving certificate should, in the opinion of the Committee, be such that candidates who obtain it in schools approved for the purpose of accrediting University entrants may not need any further test, and those who secure it in schools not so approved may yet find themselves ready to sit for formal University Entrance Examination. Not the least advantage of the proposed scheme, in the opinion of the Committee, is the fact that it provided as completely for the needs of the pupils of agricultural and technical high schools as for those of the traditional type. Moreover, the responsibility of seeing that the standard of the departmental certificates is maintained at a uniformly high level will be shared equally by the Principals of the schools themselves and the District Superintendents of Education, who will doubtless be as quick to safeguard the prestige of their districts as the Principals to maintain that of their schools. This principle of co-operation, vitalized by an inspiring inner motive, so ably set forth by the member of the staff of the Sacred Heart College already quoted, is likely to prove very much more effectual than one of carping criticism and continual fault-finding, such as so often characterized the relations of school Inspectors and teachers under the systems of bygone days. In order to restrict the University Entrance Examination to its original purpose, the Committee proposes that candidates for it be required to sign a statement of their intention to proceed to the University if successful in passing such examination ; and, in the event of any abuse of such requirement becoming apparent, that they be further required to pay in advance the first term college fees, which would be refunded in the event of their failure to pass the examination. With this test thus restricted to its proper purpose the Committee is of opinion that the public would quickly learn to accept the departmental leaving certificates for various purposes for which matriculation is now required, and strongly urges that in this matter the Government offices should give a lead to the business community. The Committee is convinced that the time has come for the institution of a University School Board of Studies, and has recommended that such a Board be constituted. With regard to the application of the accrediting system to University entrance, the Committee considers that such should be introduced with great caution, and not generally, in the first instance. It considers that the universities should be recognized as supreme in their own domain, and the proper guardians of
Certificates proposed to be in three grades.
Provision for endorsement of certificates.
Needs of non-academic pupils met.
Restriction of University Entrance Examination.
University Schools Board of Studies recommended.
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their own portals. It has, therefore, proposed the institution of the dual system outlined by Mr. Hansen, which it has adapted to New Zealand conditions in conformity with the general scheme of reorganization recommended in this report. With regard to entrance by accrediting from approved schools, it has provided the double safeguard afforded by the Victorian system of careful inspection of the schools by Inspectors acting on behalf of the University, and of equally careful scrutiny at the University colleges of the work done and the standards maintained by undergraduates accredited from such schools. If this system is administered with caution, and the standards required for approval of schools are maintained at the highest level, the Committee believes that such University recognition will advantageously replace the old objective of scholarship-winning as the " blue ribbon " of the secondary schools. For those candidates from " approved " schools whose Principals decline to assume the responsibility for their nomination as accredited pupils of the school there is provided an appeal to the Caesar of the formal examination, for which also candidates from the majority of the schools will be required to sit. This examination, it is proposed, should incorporate the principle of the Scottish system, that for every candidate in every subject the examiners should be required to consult the candidates' teachers and school records, and that as far as possible the examinations should be conducted orally and practically, and in the schools. With regard to the difficulty indicated by Mr. Hansen in respect of the refusal of two universities to recognize matriculants by accrediting, the Committee is of opinion that such a difficulty will eventually disappear as it becomes apparent that the standards of such undergraduates are, as has been found in all countries where the system has been put into operation, as high as, if not higher than, those who enter by the examination gate. In the meantime the Committee feels that the introduction of the reform should not be delayed on this account, as the continuance of the examination system makes it possible for any candidates who may perhaps hope to proceed to one or other of these universities to sit for the formal examination in addition to securing an accredited pass —a practice to which the Committee can see no objection whatever, at least in the present circumstances. The machinery by which the Committee has provided for the co-operation of the universities and the Education Department's inspectorial staff is designed to preserve the autonomy of each within its own domain, and yet to enable the fullest harmony and efficiency in the operation of the system. The Committee therefore recommends — (16) (a) That the individual progress card system now in operation in the primary schools be extended to the intermediate and senior stages. (6) That upon the basis of the above progress card records Education Department certificates be issued by school Principals to all pupils on leaving school as follows :— (i) At the termination of the compulsory school age (15 years), the school leaving certificate, with provision for certification thereon of further education received in the case of pupils remaining at school to the age of 16 or 17 years as the case may be ; (ii) Upon completion of three years' education beyond the intermediate stage, the higher leaving certificate. (c) That both certificates be issued in three grades—A, B, and C— according to the degree of proficiency attained in the courses taken as determined by the Principal of the school; and that in the case of pupils awarded certificates of lower grade right of appeal be allowed to the District Superintendent of Schools, who shall determine the appeal by reference
Formal examinations still to be held.
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to the pupil's progress card, supplemented, if in his judgment such a course is warranted, by a special examination as hereinafter provided. (d) That Grade B, in the case of higher leaving certificates, should be equivalent to the standards required for matriculation by the proposed new Universities of Northern and Southern New Zealand, and Grade A equivalent to the standard required for honours at such examination. (e) That in order to meet border-line cases, as indicated above, arrangements be made by the Education Department for the institution of supplementary examinations of uniform character and of modern type, for which question papers should be prepared by the Department for use throughout all districts, with marking scales provided for the guidance of Superintendents and their staffs, by whom the answers should be marked ; and that such examinations should be conducted in the schools under the supervision of the Principal of the school. (/) That the prescriptions and standards of the supplementary examinations be those considered appropriate for the issue of certificates of Grade B, with provision for the issue in the case of exceptional papers of certificates of Grade A (honours) ; and that in so far as the subjects taken are those required for University matriculation they be in accordance with the standards approved by the University Schools Board of Studies hereinafter recommended to be set up, and in other subjects those prescribed by the Education Department. (17) (a) That a University Schools Board of Studies be set up, comprising representatives of the Universities, the Education Department, and the public and registered non - State secondary schools, to consider all questions relating to secondary-school studies, examinations, and certificates, and to advise the University Councils and the Education Department thereon. (b) That condidates for the University Entrance Examination be required to state in writing upon the form of entry for the examination their intention to enter upon a University course if successful in passing the examination; and that in every case and in all subjects the school records of candidates be taken into account by the examiners before determining whether candidates have passed or failed. (c) That parallel with the above examination system there be instituted a system of matriculation from approved schools upon their internal examination alone ; and that for this purpose higher leaving certificates of Grade A or B granted by such schools be accepted by the Universities for the purpose of matriculation. (d) That the right to approve schools for the purpose of accrediting pupils to the University colleges for matriculation under the preceding clause should rest with the University Councils, upon the recommendation of the Superintendent of Education of the district in which each applicant school is situated, who shall make a special report to such authorities upon each application referred to him for that purpose. (e) That in the event of the University Councils requiring further evidence of the fitness of any school to be placed upon the approved list they shall be empowered to call for a further report, and for that purpose to nominate a Special Board
Recommendations re University Entrance Examinations.
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of Inspectors, selected, with the approval of the Minister, from within the inspectorial staff of the North or South Island, as the case may be, to make a full inspection and report upon the school concerned, the travelling and other expenses of such inspection to be divided equally between the University Council and the Education Department, or, in the case of registered non-State schools, the school concerned. (/) That in the event of an approved school failing, in the opinion of the Superintendent of Education, to maintain the required standard of efficiency, and such conditions continuing after warning given, the Superintendent shall report the school to the Minister of Education, who may, if he thinks fit, order the report to be forwarded for the consideration of the University Council; and that upon consideration thereof the Council shall have power to take such action as it may deem necessary either to caution or to disrate the school. (g) That separate records be kept within each University college of the progress and work of students entering by the two methods ; and that in the event of students from " approved" schools doing unsatisfactory work the University Council be empowered to report the circumstances to the Minister of Education ; and, if further students from the same school show similar unsatisfactory work, to ask for a special inspectorial report either from the Superintendent of Education or from the Special Board of Inspectors hereinbefore provided for, and. upon consideration thereof, to take such action as may be deemed necessary either to caution or to disrate the school. (.h) That all candidates from "approved " schools who are not granted accredited passes should have the right to sit for the formal Matriculation Examination hereinbefore provided for. CHAPTER XVI. —STATE FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FOR DESERVING STUDENTS DESIROUS OF PROCEEDING TO HIGHER EDUCATION. The Reichel-Tate report upon University Education in New Zealand, after showing that the number of University students in proportion to the population in New Zealand is almost double that of Germany, Scotland, and the United States of America, and more than double that of Australia, the Commissioners added, significantly : " This high proportion may at first sight seem ground for legitimate pride and self - congratulation, but closer scrutiny suggests that it is capable of a less favourable interpretation : that it may be a source of weakness rather than of strength. It may mean, and in our opinion it does mean, that the University of New Zealand is working at a lower level and with inferior ideals." Later on, after urging the need for a system of training for secondary teachers, they continued as follows :— Extract from the Report of the Royal Commission on University Education in New Zealand, 1925. The proposal to extend the training of secondary teachers and of some primary teachers to four years will probably be objected to on the grounds that already the cost of training is very great. But it is open to serious question whether this expenditure is in the right direction. The cost of the training of teachers during 1924 was no less a sum than £167,814. Of this amount £133,578 was incurred in respect of allowances to students, while only £34,236 was spent upon their instruction.
Report ol 1925 Commission on University education.
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We are aware that the allowances to students were increased in order to attract recruits for the service, and to cope with the competition of the Public Service for young students, but we are not convinced that it is good policy to pay such libera! allowances, if, by doing so, the period of training for special courses is kept at too short a period, and if money is not forthcoming to provide the most efficient conditions for training. We have one suggestion to offer in respect of the present two-year period of training. Under present conditions many students enter the college without having secured a full secondary education. Accordingly, the Training College endeavours to supply this deficiency, and assumes, in addition to its function as a professional school, the function of a high school. Now, if it were proposed to give to pupils at a high school allowances ranging from £80 to £115 per annum, there would, be a public protest. Would it not be desirable to insist upon a full high school course before entrance to the training college, with the object of shortening the course for many students ? These students will be quite efficient for all practical purposes, if after a really good secondary education, they are well grounded in the leading principles of education, and in the method of the subjects of the primary school. There are in the school service hundreds of girls who in the nature of things will not remain in the service for more than five to ten years. Experience has shown that such girls can be made very effective teachers by the course above described. If the period of training for such teachers is shortened there will be less difficulty in providing for a great extension of the training of others. On the question of liberal allowances to student teachers our views have had a remarkable reinforcement in the Report of the Departmental Committee on the Training of Teachers for Public Elementary Schools, just published, April, 1925. " The evidence which we have heard, and more particularly the evidence from witnesses representing organizations of teachers, has urged upon us that the only sound principle for securing an adequate supply is the principle which relies upon the attractions of the profession itself. They urge that this is the natural principle, common to the professions generally, and that it takes account of the importance of giving free play to the factor of personal inclination ; that methods based on any other principle are artificial, and must lead, as they contend, to the presence in schools of teachers who find themselves unsuited for the work and discontented with it, who are there not because they were attracted to it as a calling, or chose it deliberately for what it offered, but because as boys and girls the way into teaching was made for them and their parents a far more open path to a livelihood than the way leading anywhere else. They suggest, too, that this highway makes a peculiar appeal to the less vigorous and enterprising spirits. The witnesses who have urged these views point out that in elementary school teaching interest and conviction are essential, and that the teacher's character and personality are continuously exercising profound and largely unconscious effects. Men and women, therefore, whose temperament is unsuitable, and who are out of tune with their environment, must be very undesirable teachers. It is also suggested that a calling to which admission is made easy by a system of State grants, and where the supply of entrants is secured mainly by this means, will thereby lose prestige and standing in public opinion, as compared with other callings, and that its power of attracting recruits will be diminished accordingly. Shortly put, they contend that methods of securing a supply which rely on anything but the inducements which the profession offers must be bad for individual teachers, for the standing and spirit of the profession, for the schools and for the supply of teachers itself. " They mean by the attractions of the profession partly those inherent in the teacher's work, and partly those resulting from satisfactory conditions. They suggest that the desire to teach exists in many people, men as well as women, and that the capacity to develop into an efficient teacher is not so rare as to constitute any difficulty in securing an ample supply, provided that the conditions of teaching are satisfactory. These conditions include reasonable salaries, regulated on a basis assuring a full measure of stability and certainty, reasonable pension arrangements making adequate provision for disability and retirement, satisfactory conditions of work as regards, for instance, school accommodation and amenities, freedom from minute administrative control and a more general recognition in public opinion of the value of the work which teachers do. " Such a principle fully carried out right through the system means, as its advocates contemplate, that there should be no provision of assistance to boys or girls, and young men or women, in consideration specifically of an intention to take up teaching, as distinct from any other vocation. They do not, of course, imply that the education, or, indeed, the professional training, of intending teachers should cease to be subsidized from the rates and taxes : what they urge is that the general system of aid through grants, the remission of fees, and maintenance allowances, ought to be such as to cover the needs of intending teachers along with the needs of all other young people who are being educated whatever their aim in life, and that special assistance in respect of this particular aim ought to be merged in the general provision available for all. Up to the point at which professional training began, no one intending to become a teacher would be under any requirement of declaring it, and no one would be in a position to obtain educational facilities better or more cheaply than others because he declared this intention." The shortened course we suggest has the strong recommendation of an admirable minority report, which states, in justification of a one-year course based upon a full secondary course : " The plan we propose would certainly reduce the present heavy expenditure which goes to provide subsidized educational and professional training for women teachers who by reason of early marriage are prevented from giving service in the schools commensurate with the cost of their specialized training."
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The position to-day.
The Committee is aware that since 1925 a very great improvement has taken place in the standard of entrance qualifications of candidates for the teaching profession, and also in the standards of University degrees. This is undoubtedly all to the good and a step in the direction recommended by the Royal Commission. It is, however, still generally 'agreed that the standard of University entrance is too low, and, that being so, it follows that much of the first year's work taken in the University colleges must also be of lower calibre than it should be. In other words, it is of such a nature that it could well be taken, at much less cost to the State, in the upper forms of the secondary schools. It was apparent, moreover, that the present system of awarding bursaries to holders of higher leaving certificates is operating to empty the higher forms of the secondary schools into the University colleges too soon. Upon inquiry into the mode of award and operation of these certificates the Committee found the position to be as follows : — First, lower leaving certificates are issued to pupils who have completed at an approved school,. State or private, at least a three-years course of secondary instruction in which the standard of work pursued in the classes attended is sufficiently advanced in character to meet the requirements of the examination for a teacher's certificate in Class I) or of the University Entrance Examination, and provided that certain minimum requirements as regards units of work are complied with, a unit of work in any subject being school class-work of one hour per week regularly throughout one school year. It is provided also that no lower leaving certificate shall be granted unless evidence is given that the pupil has reached a reasonable standard of attainment in the classes. The examinations are internal, held by the staff, and the standard reached is estimated by the visiting Inspectors in consultation with the staff, the evidence being submitted to the Inspectors when application is made by the Principal of the school for the issue of certificates to the recommended pupils. In all such cases where a certificate of this standard is required a pass in the Matriculation (or, as it is now called, the University Entrance) Examination is specified. Higher leaving certificates are issued to pupils who have satisfied the requirements for a lower leaving certificate, and, in addition, have completed to good advantage a further secondary course of one year, including four units of English at a higher standard than that prescribed for the University Entrance Examination and four units of like standard in each of two other subjects selected from a specified list, provided, further, that not less than seventy-five units of work are satisfactorily completed during the four years. The higher leaving certificate, if obtained before the holder reaches the age of 19 years, entitles him to a University bursary of the value of not more than £20 per annum, tenable for three or, at the most, four years at a University college. That this is one of the main causes, if not the principal cause, of the state of affairs animadverted upon by the Royal Commission was made clear in an important statement, from which a brief extract has already been quoted in another connection, made to the Committee by Professor G. E. Thompson, Litt.D., Professor of Modern Languages at the University of Otago, and Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Otago Boys' and Girls' High Schools. Extract from the Evidence of Professor G. E. Thompson, Litt.D., Professor of Modern Languages at the University of Otago, and Chairman of the Otago High Schools Board of Governors. As a University professor, I wish, to make a statement regarding the relationship between the secondary-school system and the University. Any inquiry into our education system must take cognizance of the dislocation that exists between these two stages. Attention has often been drawn to the importance of avoiding overlapping between the primary, technical, and secondary schools ; and as a result of this attention overlapping at this point has been largely, if not entirely, eliminated. But it is a striking fact that little heed has so far been paid to the much more serious overlapping to be found in the passage from secondary schools to the University. At present, the students who come to the University are of three grades— (1) Those who have just matriculated ; (2) Those who have had a further post - matriculation year, and who come with a higher leaving certificate and a University bursary ; (3) Those who have had a further year or two years and who have reached the standard of the Junior Scholarship.
Present system of school certificates,
Evidence of Professor of Modern Languages, University of Otago.
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These students have to be taught side by side in University classes. The inevitable results are that the standard of University tuition is lowered to the level of the lowest of these three grades, and the professor is compelled to spend much of his time in doing work which could be quite as well performed in the higher forms of secondary schools. The higher forms, under the most experienced of our secondary teachers, have still to be maintained for the comparatively few pupils who remain at school to complete their secondary instruction. We have thus large and expensive departments of two separate institutions overlapping in their work, and it stands to reason that a secondary school with its relatively small classes (fifteen to thirty) could do work at this stage better than a University with its classes of 100, 150, and 200. Under an ideal system no boy or girl would leave the secondary school until he or she had exhausted all the resources of the school, just as at present a pupil of a primary school finishes his course at his primary school before proceeding to a secondary. Possibly family or financial considerations would be an obstacle to the full attainment of such an ideal system, but every effort should be made to get as near to it as possible. The recent University Commission (in 1925) emphasized the importance of " training the community to appreciate the fact that a full secondary-school course up to the age of 18 is the only satisfactory preparation for the University on the one hand, and on the other hand for many occupations requiring a good preliminary education." One might suggest remedies for the present state of affairs : — (1) Eaising the standard of the Matriculation Examination. This is a matter for the University of New Zealand, and is presumable outside the scope of this Committee. (2) The crux of the whole question, in my opinion, is the too early stage at which the higher leaving certificate and its attendant University bursary are awarded by the Education Department. Instituted years ago with the most laudable intentions, this system has had the effect of enticing away from secondary schools hundreds of pupils each year who should be encouraged to remain longer at school, with greater advantage to themselves, to their school, and to the University. The awarding of the University bursary at least a year later would improve the situation. The pupil would benefit by coming' to University classes with a mind mature enough to derive full benefit from them. The secondary school would benefit by having a greater upper stratum of senior pupils to increase and deepen its formative influences. The University would be relieved of the deluge of elementary-school work which is- most seriously hindering its progress. In my opinion, the stranglehold which is now almost throttling our University work is the extent to which we are doing purely secondary —of a purely intermediate character. This opinion is shared by my colleagues. It means extra expense. In my own class I teach French to a class of 100. That is mass education. The regulations state that a class must not exceed thirty. In some cases it does not press us hard, because if lam lecturing in history I can lecture to as many as can hear me ; if in economics or English literature, my audience is conditioned by the extent of my voice ; but in mathematics, Latin, or French you lose all individual influence by having such immense classes. And this brings me to a further point. I wonder whether the Committee would, in regard to the drift of so many pupils to an academic course, approach the matter from the point of view of the influence of these University bursaries. Here we have the higher leaving certificate which earns for itself a University bursary entitling the pupil to free education at the University up to £20 a year. Of course, it was a laudable thing —its intention was to provide free education —to allow all secondary pupils to have free education at the University. In one sense that is true ; but in another it is not true, because it is very easy for a boy, living in a University city, to attend the University when he gets his fees paid by the £20 and his parents can keep him at home ; but outside a city a boy in a country district cannot attend University on £20 a year —it means increased expenditure for his parents on account of the boy's keep. The first point is that we have a higher leaving certificate which entitles a boy to leave school after he has remained one year after matriculation. He is not fit, even at this stage, to attend a University class. He has available for himself the higher forms of a high school, and I think it is a misnomer to call a certificate a higher leaving certificate except at the conclusion of high-school education. Our brightest pupils —those who earn distinction in after life —are mostly those who have exhausted all the resources of a secondary school before they leave it. I was through the whole of this education system myself. I was through the primary school of Otago, through the seven standards in the days when they existed ; I went on to a Senior Scholarship to the Boys' High School, and it never entered my mind to leave that high school until I had finished with the very highest form ; and then I went to the University. If you say to a boy just one year after matriculation, " Here is a higher leaving certificate and a bursary : leave now, the secondary school has not much further to offer you, and there is no advantage in your staying," it means that the University is overlapping very seriously. When I raised this question some years ago the then Director of Education agreed with it in principle, but he thought that in practice it would be too revolutionary a change to make now that the public had become accustomed to the present system. He said also that if the secondary schools were to dig down as far into the primary schools as the University digs down into the secondary schools there would be an outcry at once. And yet here we have two expensive institutions doing the same work. Every time a boy asks whether he should leave school now with a higher leaving certificate, or stay, I should say, " Stay on," because he would derive much more benefit than he would if he comes to University too early. The other point I raise is as to whether our University bursaries are given too early. A boy who remains at school and does fairly satisfactory work for a year after matriculation gets his higher leaving certificate and a University bursary. I do not know what proportion of University students have these bursaries, but they seem to comprise a large section of our students, and I think it would be a desirable alteration to cut down the expenditure on these University bursaries and add what is saved to such bursaries as would assist country boys to come to a University city for their education. And it would also be an excellent thing if those pupils who did not need bursaries did not receive them. There are many parents whose sons and daughters receive bursaries who could well afford to pay for
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their education, and there are many deserving children of poor parents, and parents in the country, who are quite unable on the present bursaries to send their children to the University. I would say that our secondary schools are dying at the top ; but one wonders whether it is not better to do so —that is, the constant draw and pull of these bursaries before the top is reached does make the top form less availed of than it should be. I know of schools where the Sixth Form is very considerably reduced. Instead of being increased during the last twenty years, they have been cut down. When I was in the Sixth Form it was usual to have classes of thirty or forty. Nowadays they are under ten. The Sixth Form is in danger of dying by inanition. As you know, the finishing examination of a secondary school is the Junior University Examination. The entrants for matriculation have increased out- of recognition. Every year the numbers are mounting up in an alarming way, yet the entrants for these Junior University Scholarships are increasing very slowly. In 1902 there were 104 entrants ; in 1909, 126 ; in 1915, 133 ; and in 1928, 166. I suppose that during that time the entrants for matriculation were trebled. That would seem to indicate that there is not sufficient encouragement for boys and girls at secondary schools to exhaust the possibilities of their school. Apart from the improvements noted in the standards of entrant teachers' qualifications and University degrees, already noted, the Committee's investigations went to show that on the financial side the conditions to-day are very much the same as they were five years ago, no less a sum than £121,916 having been expended upon allowances to teacher students and their transport expenses for the year ending 31st March, 1930, and £5,849 upon their Unversity college fees, in addition to £22,964 upon University and other bursaries for higher education awarded mainly upon presentation of the higher leaving certificates referred to above. That the allowances made to teacher students are more liberal than those in the Australian States is evident from the following extract from the report of the Director of Education, Mr. T. B. Strong, M.A., M.Sc., to the Hon. the Minister of Education upon his recent visit to Australia to attend the conference of Directors of Education. Extract from Report of Mr. T. B. Strong, M.A., M.Sc., Director op Education, upon his Visit to Australia to Attend the Conference of Directors of Education in May, 1930. The allowances paid to the training-college students vary in the different States. Tasmania pays an even £70, with £20 lodging-allowance ; Victoria pays £24 to male students living at home and £60 if living away from home, while female students receive £20 if at home and £50 if away from home ; South Australia pays £60 to males and £50 to females, with £20 lodging-allowance in each case if living away from home ; New South Wales pays £30, plus £5 for books, with £20 additional if living away from home. Third-, fourth-, and fifth-year students may receive £20 additional. These allowances are, on the whole, lower than ours, and I am still of the opinion I expressed to your predecessor in office, that the allowances should be reduced, or, better still, placed on a repayment basis, as is done in the case of University students in Victoria under the Student Loan Fund System. In this case the students repay the advance out of their salary when they receive employment ; but the same system could be readily applied to training-college students in New Zealand. A special return prepared for the Committee by the Education Department reveals the fact that in thirty-four out of the forty-four public secondary schools the top class consists of from fifteen to four pupils, the average number being 9-5. This, in the opinion of the Committee, confirms Professor Thompson's contentions. The secondary schools are staffed on a basis of one master to twenty-six pupils. Either, then, these classes are being worked in the same room with the others, under one master, which is not an ideal state of affairs, or they are being worked in a separate room under a separate master, at the expense of the the rest of the school in the matter of the average size of the classes. In either case it is obvious that in the secondary schools as a whole the State has provided class-room accommodation, expensive scientific equipment, and high-grade staffing capable of affording higher secondary education for a much greater number of pupils than are at present enrolled in the senior classes ; and that some reform is needed by which the professors may be relieved of having to instruct large and uneven classes in a number of subjects at a standard which could be taken in the existing secondary schools without involving the State in any additional cost. The remedy, in the opinion of the Committee, is to be found partly in the proposals which it has made for the reorganization of the school-leaving-certificate system and the conduct of the University Entrance Examination, and partly by a careful review of the whole question of giving State financial assistance to students proceeding to higher education, whether for the teaching or any other profession or skilled vocation.
Report of Director ot Education on 1930 Conference of Directors of Education.
Existing staffing and accommodation in secondary schools.
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The suggestion has been made in an earlier chapter that with the abolition of the second examination for degrees now conducted by the New Zealand University students will be relieved of the payments of the large aggregate sum now charged for examination fees, and that much of this could be recovered for the State by a corresponding reduction in the value of the bursaries as now granted. When the State sets out to render financial assistance to men desirous of entering upon what is in this report recognized as the basic vocation in this country, upon which the prosperity of all others depends—that of agriculture —it does not grant living-allowances and bursaries indiscriminately to those who take up farm selections. On the contrary, after careful inquiry, it renders assistance by a system of financial aid designed upon the most liberal lines, but at the same time based upon sound national principles calculated both to develop self-reliance in the farmer and to protect the financial interests of the State. The Committee does not suggest that free allowances and bursaries as hitherto granted to University and teacher students should be entirely stopped ; but it does suggest that the whole system should be carefully reviewed, and that the possibilities of making alternative provision for rendering assistance along the lines suggested by the Reichel-Tate Commission and the Director of Education should be explored. It cannot help feeling that, as was clearly shown in connection with the scholarship system, many of the recipients of the bursaries are the children of parents whose position is such that State aid is neither needed nor warranted -parents who are well able to provide for the higher education of. their own families. The Committee therefore believes that a system more on the lines of that recommended in the case of the secondary stage of education might be instituted for the post-secondary stage as well, and that it should apply without distinction to students for all the professions and higher vocations, whether at University, or agricultural, or technical colleges. Under such a system, where the circumstances require it, the way would still be open for the granting of a straight-out bursary, with or without conditions attached; or, if such is not thought necessary, of an advance, with or without interest, as the case may be, and again upon such conditions as the actual circumstances of each individual case may justify. The main point is that every case should be considered on its own merits, as is done in connection with other State financial assistance given to private individuals, and that the whole scheme should be administered in as liberal and sympathetic a spirit as is consistent with due regard for national as well fas individual interests. The Committee therefore recommends — (18) That the present system of awarding University and other bursaries and allowances for higher education, including trainingcollege studentships, be revised ; and that the bursary system already provided for in recommendation No. 5 be supplemented by the institution of a system of State financial assistance to deserving students by way of either straight-out grants, or loans, with or without interest, upon such repayment terms as may be deemed advisable, according to the special circumstances involved ; each application for assistance to be endorsed with the recommendation of the Superintendent of Education of the District in which the applicant resides, or of the Dean of the faculty within which the student is pursuing his studies, and to be considered upon its own merits. CHAPTER XVII. —ORGANIZATION OF EDUCATION (INCLUDING POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION) BY LOCAL EDUCATION AUTHORITIES. That the organization of education in large urban districts presents special problems has been recognized in many ways in this report, such, for' example, as the provision for separate intermediate schools of the Kowhai type, the representation of the University College Councils upon the Councils of the Technical Colleges, and vice versa, and the development of higher technical education, the
Scheme of assistance to students and teachers should be revised.
Recommendation,
Distinctive features of urban districts.
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consolidation of the training colleges with the University colleges and the organization of a considerable number of urban schools of all grades and types as practising schools in association with the University Schools of Education. What is proposed to be set out in this chapter is the general organization of the education system within each education district by the local education authorities —Boards, Councils, and Committees—to whom it is to be entrusted. The subject has been considered primarily from the point of view of a typical education district outside the four chief centres, but, with due allowance for the special factors operating in these and enumerated above, what is here stated will apply, mutatis mutandis, with equal force to the problems of the four chief urban districts. It will be observed, in the first place, that, while not committing itself to any definite recommendation on the matter, the Committee has suggested that the constitution of the District Education Boards should be based upon the thoroughly democratic principle of the direct representation of the interests concerned, including the interests of the electors as a whole. There will be neither difficulty nor any great expense in thus providing for the direct representation of the people on the Boards if the boundaries of the education districts are so arranged that each district comprises an aggregation of complete electoral area units. As regards the representation of local governing bodies, it is suggested that this might be carried out in the same manner as the present representation of School Committees, the individual members of which are in effect constituted an electoral college for this purpose. The teachers will have their own machinery for the election of their representatives within each district. With regard to the special interests included under the head of agricultural and pastoral associations, and employers' and employees' associations, it is suggested that these should be formally appointed by the Governor in Council, not as Government nominees, but definitely upon recommendation by the associations concerned. Thus the Boards should, in the opinion of the Committee, be thoroughly representative of and sensitive to all shades of public opinion within ea,ch area, and consequently ideally qualified to undertake the important duties entrusted to them. In the final chapter of this report will be found a conspectus of the reorganized education system of the Dominion as envisaged by the Committee when the reforms recommended have been put into effect. It will be the principal duty of each Education Board to see that the benefit of this truly national scheme is available in its entirety to the remotest child within its area of authority upon terms as nearly equal to those of urban districts as can possibly be secured. To assist in this great objective each Board will be provided with a carefully balanced staff of experts under the supervision of its own chief executive officer, the Superintendent of Education. These will include specialist Inspectors or Supervisors of Schools, to use the modern term —a name, by the way, thoroughly significant of the changed spirit by which the new movement in education is inspired—in sufficient mimber to enable all types of schools to be adequately supervised, from the most remote sole-teacher elementary school to the senior composite high, technical, or agricultural high school situated in the administrative centre of the district. It will be the duty of the Board, for example, through this staff, to see that children out of reach of the regular schools, or unable to attend through physical disability, are brought into touch with the Correspondence School in Wellington, the splendid work of which the Committee commends to the notice of all whose children are so circumstanced. In this connection it may be pointed out that this school is now successfully undertaking secondary as well as primary work, and there seems to be no reason why, when the State is able to extend the range of its educational activities to the important field of adult as well as adolescent education, this admirable institution should not cater for the needs of remote parents as well as for those of their children. The importance of adult education is now beginning to be recognized in all modern countries. The increasing materialism and commercialism of modern life are every day rendering more and more necessary the provision of adequate training for leisure time. Many occupations are becoming so superspecialized that it is difficult, if not impossible, for them to have very much intrinsic interest for the operatives. This renders all the more necessary the provision of both cultural education for the manual worker and manual training for those engaged in clerical and professional
Democratic constitution of District Education Boards.
Function of Education Boards.
Valuable work of Correspondence School.
Education for leisure.
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life. In the schools this will be secured by insistence upon a common foundation of cultural and manual training throughout all courses, and in after life by the steady development of such wholly admirable organizations as the Workers' Educational Association and the Correspondence School. Consequently, although neither of these agencies will come under the direct administrative authority of the District Boards, it is confidently expected that each Board will keep them in mind as definite parts of the national education system, and will do all in its power to further their work and extend their influence throughout the district over which it presides. With respect to higher education, it will also be the duty of the Boards to see that the benefits of the national provision for higher education are shared by the young people of their districts. To this end the Committee has recommended that the administration of the bursary fund should be entrusted to these bodies in conjunction with the Superintendents of the several districts. At this stage the Committee desires to express its confident hope that with the change-over to the new organization there will be left behind all those unfortunate misunderstandings which have in the past marred the relations of the Boards and the Department, and which have made unnecessarily difficult the very necessary work of the District Senior Inspectors of Schools. Under the new management the Superintendents of Education will be in many respects more closely identified with the Boards than with the Department, and the Committee hopes and believes that the result will be entirely satisfactory to the new Boards that are to be set up. One of the most important functions of the Boards will be the general organization of the educational pyramid within each district by means of the progressive consolidation of schools and classes from the small remote elementary schools right through to its apex —the senior high, technical, and agricultural high schools in the main population centres. The determination of centres of consolidation, of modes of conveyance, and the need for the provision of hostels, and the establishment of agricultural high schools will require their careful consideration, as will also the whole question of the development of agricultural education under the new school curricula throughout the district. The policy herein recommended by the Committee is in full accord with thatrecommended by a Special Sub-Committee of the National Industrial Conference in 1928, as follows : — Extract from the Report of the National Industrial Conference, 1928. This sub-committee urges the Government, to shape the education system in the direction of encouraging as many boys as possible to take up farming occupations rather than professional and commercial vocations ; this to apply to city, town, and country schools. This sub-committee is of the opinion that under the present system there are not sufficient openings for boys educated in cities and towns, and that farming presents an almost unlimited scope for their employment, while positions in the town industries are limited. There will be abundant scope for the arousal of practical local interest in connection with the establishment and maintenance of boys' and girls' agricultural clubs, school and district circulating libraries, and an efficient vocational guidance organization. In connection with this last it is felt that under the co-ordinating leadership of the Boards the very valuable interest and assistance of such local organizations as the Chambers of Commerce, Employers' and Employees' Associations, Rotary Clubs, the Y.M.C.A., and others, will be glad to co-operate in this important field of modern educational endeavour. The assistance of agricultural and vocational guidance experts upon the staff will, it is confidently expected, be greatly appreciated in these branches of the work. In this connection the Committee desires to express its gratification at the steps which have already been taken by the Education Department in this matter of vocational guidance by appointing special vocational guidance officers to the staffs of two of the largest city technical colleges and by the publication of a special pamphlet entitled " Careers, and How to Choose Them." This the Committee considers a most valuable compendium of information upon the vocational avenues open to young people in this country, how to qualify to enter upon them, and what opportunities they offer for advancement in life. It feels, however, that the organization of practical vocational guidance is essentially a matter for the local authorities, in whose hands the pamphlet referred to will undoubtedly prove of the greatest value. 8*
Workers' Educational Association.
Higher education to be provided for.
Position of Superintendents of Education.
Consolidation of schools, &c.
Extract from Report of National Industrial Conference, 1928.
Importance of local interest.
Vocational guidance a matter for local organization.
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The Committee lias already expressed its liigli appreciation of the work being done by the technical schools of the Dominion—a service which is being rendered to the community mo less faithfully in the country towns than it is in the larger cities. This work the District Education Boards will do all in their power to foster and assist. To train apprentices and to enable young people in employment generally to improve their position in life, and young and old to acquire through the technical college evening classes and the Workers' Educational Association classes a knowledge of the arts and crafts, and of the social sciences and the literature and. history of the race, is to equip them not only for the battle of life, but also to provide them with the means of making profitable and enjoyable use of their leisure time, as a result of which their work will benefit and the whole community be the richer. Another important responsibility that will devolve upon the local education authorities will be the provision of sites, buildings, and equipment of schools. Here the need for co-operation is of paramount importance because of the manifold interests involved. The Government, which is charged with the responsibility for the maintenance of the education system as a great national service, and which undertakes the full responsibility for the provision of essential buildings, playgrounds, and equipment, must of necessity be accorded the final word in this important matter. On the other hand, the District Education Board, with its intimate knowledge of the needs of its district as a whole, is in a specially favourable position—first, to advise the Government as to what is required, and then to undertake the immediate supervision of the work on its behalf. Here —as, indeed, in all their relations with the School Councils and Committees within the district— the Boards will have the fullest scope for the practice of the Golden Rule. As bodies intermediary between the School Committees and the Department, they will be able to evince towards the former that consideration for local interests and rights which they look to receive from the latter, and by that means to ensure the working of the whole system, in a spirit of complete co-operation and harmony. Under the new organization there will be a separate Council for every secondary and technical high school. Where in the past as many as five schools —some for boys, others for girls—have been controlled by a single Board of Governors, each school will in future have a Council of its own. Under such a system of decentralization there will be scope for the development of real local interest, and, in the case of the girls' schools, for the institution of School Councils upon which a much larger representation of mothers will enable their special problems to be dealt with more sympathetically and effectively. As regards the oversight of the schools, their internal management, and particularly the maintenance of their special traditions and tone, the powers of the Councils will continue as before. The fact that the schools will become an integral part of the district education system will necessitate the Councils taking a broader view of their responsibilities and duties than has, perhaps, been possible in the past. There is no reason why this should mean any reduction of local interest in the schools, but the reverse, for with a closer organic association with the primary schools there will inevitably develop throughout each district a keener sense of the unity and continuity of the educative process and a more intense realization of the fact that all types and. grades of schools within it form together a single organization of which the whole district should be proud. The School Councils will, however, continue to administer solely the hostels associated with their respective schools. In this connection the Committee can see no difficulty in the way of such consultation with the local authorities in the matter of appointments as may in the opinion of the National Appointments Committee be desirable in. order to ensure the successful working of such hostels. There appears to the Committee to be no lack of opportunity for such Councils to promote in matters large and small the welfare of the schools under their immediate care. To them the District Board s and the Government must look for that close supervision of the school buildings and grounds which only local bodies can give. There are, moreover, so many features of secondary school life which can only be provided with the assistance of local people that in this matter alone there is a wide scope for useful and worthy activity. With the assurance of subsidies granted upon a generous basis, amounting in some circumstances to as
Education of adults and adolescents in employment.
Provision of sites, buildings, and equipment.
The Golden Rule in educational administration.
Advantage of a Separate Council for each secondary school.
A unified district education system.
Control of hostels to remain as heretofore.
Functions of School Councils.
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much as £2 for £l, it should be the ambition of every School Council to see its school equipped with all those amenities of modern education the provision of the whole cost of which is beyond the capacity of the State. These would include assembly halls, swimming pools, radio and cinema equipment, libraries, tennis courts, and innumerable other adjuncts to a full school life that will readily suggest themselves. Similarly within their humbler but no less important sphere, the School Committees can look forward to a new era of usefulness under the reorganized system. With the increased capitation which the Committee believes will become possible upon the reduction of the total number of Boards and the elimination of wasteful duplication of clerical staffs, and the stability of the school staffs which the new system of appointment of teachers will ensure, there is no doubt that there will develop a stronger bond of attachment between pupils, parents, teachers, and Committee in the common interests of each school than was possible under the old system, with its barely sufficient capitation and its constantly changing staffs. Furthermore, whereas under the system of centralization of control which obtained, for example, in a huge district such as that of the old Auckland Education Board it was quite impossible for all the Committees to have personal relationships with Board members, under the new decentralized system, with Boards and Superintendents of Education located at Whangarei and Hamilton, it is clear that there will become possible that intimate personal relationship between the Board members and the School Committees, which the present Committee found to be so notable and gratifying a feature of the existing smaller Board districts, such, for example, as that of Taranaki. The Committee, therefore, looks forward with confidence to the future, feeling assured that as the new prospect opened up by its recommendations comes to be properly understood the community as a whole will realize the consistency with which it has applied to the difficult problems it lias had to face the three fundamental principles which, even at the risk of repetition, it desires to emphasize as having governed its whole attitude towards its task, viz. : — (1) Unification of control with a view to co-ordinated, and therefore harmonious, efficient, and economical working ; (2) Consolidation of schools and classes with a view to making the fullest use of existing buildings, equipment, and staffs ; (3) Decentralization of control, with adequate safeguards to protect the national interests. Having these principles, therefore, in view, the Committee further recommends — (19) (a) That outside the four centres the District Education Boards be the controlling' authorities for all forms of post-secondary as well as secondary education, including higher technical classes and the training of apprentices. (b) That the system of vocational guidance already initiated be extended and developed ; and that the organization of vocational guidance work within each educational district be entrusted to the District Education Boards.
Position of School Committees will be improved.
Importance of decentralization.
Principles of reform,
Recommendations.
SECTION 4. —HEALTH AND DISABILITY. CHAPTER XVIII.—THE SCHOOL MEDICAL SERVICE. The Committee throughout its tour of the Dominion was impressed by the fine physique and healthy happy faces of the children in our schools. This satisfactory feature of our education system, it is convinced, is due to the excellent work done by the various services specially directed to that end —the Plunket Society, the School Medical and Dental Services, and the Physical Instruction Branch —no
Physical health of New Zealand children.
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less than to the Dominion's healthy climate and the mentally and physically vigorous character of the original settlers, whose descendants now people this favoured land. These services the Committee desires to see not only maintained, but extended, being confident that no part of the nation's expenditure is productive of surer and better return than that which is directed to the physical health of the children. The following evidence of Dr. Ada Paterson, Director of School Hygiene, is descriptive of the work of that Division of the Department of Health : — Extract prom the Evidence op Dr. Ada Paterson, Director, Division of School Hygiene. School medical work in New Zealand is carried out by the Division of School Hygiene, which is responsible lor the supervision of all measures for safeguarding the health of school children and for ensuring a satisfactory environment at school. The School Medical Service in New Zealand was placed upon a definite basis in 1912 when three full-time School Medical Officers were appointed. Previous to that time the only regular examinations that were made of school children in New Zealand were in respect of scholars attending some of the larger secondary schools and private schools. The School Medical Officers were, at first, officers of the Education Department, but in 1921 the service was transferred to the Health Department. There is now a permanent staff consisting of a Director, twelve School Medical Officers, and thirty-one school nurses. The Health Act, 1920, section 139, gives the necessary authority for the medical examination of children attending the primary schools, but the duties and powers of the School Medical Officer are defined in the Education Act, 1914, section 134. The School Medical Service aims at securing for each child three complete physical examinations during his school life, but special examinations are carried out when parents, teachers, or the School Medical Officers consider them necessary. Children found to be suffering from defect are kept under observation until the necessary treatment is obtained. It is recognized that medical treatment must be available for every child in need of it, and that adequate provision must be made for the ill-nourished and neglected. Mentally backward and feeble-minded children are given special consideration, arrangements being made for their entrance to special classes, special schools, or other institutions, as circumstances indicate. The School Medical Service works in close co-operation with the Child Welfare Branch of the Education Department, under the supervision of which are all measures for the protection of destitute and neglected children, also the regulations governing juvenile employment. It also co-operates with the officers of the Education Department in the supervision of school buildings and sanitation. Though all newer schools make excellent provision for ventilation, there has been in recent years a strong movement in favour of open-air schools, and many of the recently erected buildings are of that type. School Medical Officers are responsible for the medical examination of all candidates for entrance to the teaching profession. Until this year the work of the Division was confined to the State primary schools, comprising approximately some 250,000 pupils, but, as the result of the medical examination of entrant teachers indicated the desirability of examining candidates and giving vocational guidance at an earlier stage of their educational career, arrangements have been made by which all applicants for entrance to the teaching profession are examined one or two years before the termination of their secondary-school life. By this means unsuitable candidates are rejected at a time when they are able to devote themselves to preparing for another means of livelihood. The work of the service is also being extended to include the examination of the pre-school child. The results of examinations have amply demonstrated the necessity for the work of inspection. Though it has been clearly shown that the average of defect found in New Zealand children is less than in countries of older civilization, still there is a great deal to be achieved, and the work of the service is essentially preventive and educational. This latter aspect is particularly important, as the object is to instruct the pupil while at his most impressionable age as to the essential principles of correct living. Many thousands of pamphlets giving advice in simple language on health topics are distributed annually, and many popular lectures on health matters are given by the School Medical Officers in various districts to teachers, parents, and children. If defects are found the practice of the School Medical Officer is to notify the parents of their existence, the choice of medical attendant being left entirely to the parents. If the parents are unable for financial reasons or are too apathetic to obtain the necessary advice and treatment, it is the duty of the School Medical Service to see that it is carried out. This is done through the medium of the school nurse, who acts as a link between the school and the home, the treatment being given at the nearest hospital. A great number of operations for minor defects are carried out at the public hospitals throughout New Zealand. Where the parent, either from home ties or physical disability, is unable to take the child to the hospital for necessary treatment, the school nurse is available for undertaking this duty. In cities the percentage of treatment obtained is from 80 per cent, to 90 per cent, of the number recommended for it, but in the country, where facilities are fewer, it is much less. It is the aim of the service to secure the interest and co-operation of the parents, as it is realized that only in this way can the work be made effective. In pursuit of this aim, parents are invited to be present at the examination of their children, an opportunity of which the majority avail themselves gladly. Apart from the routine duties mentioned above, there are other important aspects of the work of the service.
Evidence of Director, Division of School Hygiene.
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Nutrition Classes and Health Camps. —For the benefit of children suffering from subnormal nutrition special classes have been established in several schools. The daily regime for children in these classes is supervised, special attention being given to the character of the food, the amount of rest taken, the time spent out of doors, &c. Good results have been obtained. A successful feature of the work for the benefit of delicate and under nourished children has been the holding of annual health camps. The great improvement in physical and mental vitality of the children attending such camps affords evidence of their value. Goitre-prevention.—lt was realized some years ago that goitre was unduly prevalent in some parts of New Zealand, and to the School Medical Officers was entrusted the duty of carrying out a survey throughout New Zealand in order to ascertain the distribution of the disease, the Professor of Preventive Medicine, Otago Medical School, acting in co-operation. In the schools of those areas where goitre was found to be endemic preventive and curative treatment was inaugurated. This consists in the administration of 1 grain of potassium iodide once weekly for three periods of ten weeks in the year. The results of treatment have been beneficial. The Control of Infectious Disease. —The control of infectious disease in the schools is also a matter for which the School Medical Officer has to assume responsibility. This entails much routine work in close co-operation with the Medical Officer of Health. For the purpose of lessening the incidence of, if not eradicating, diphtheria, a considerable amount of work has been done, firstly, by popular education as to the value of preventive treatment for the disease, and, secondly, by the inoculation of several thousands of children with toxin. anti-toxin mixture. Immunization along these lines is being extended yearly. The School Medical Officers in the course of their duties have made special studies of various aspects of child welfare. During the year 1926 the following special investigations were carried out: (1) an inquiry into the condition of rural school-children ; (2) an inquiry into the incidence of tuberculosis among children of New Zealand ; (3) an investigation into the physical growth and mental attainment of New Zealand school-children was carried out in co-operation with the Education Department. The findings resulting from these investigations will be found in the annual reports of the Department of Health. Excellent as this work is, it is clear that much yet remains to be done, particularly in the direction of extending the service to the post-primary stage. Also, in connection with the provision of corrective and remedial measures of physical training, there is a wide field for development. In this connection the Committee was much impressed with the evidence tendered by Mr. J. Renfrew White, as follows : — Extracts from the Evidence of Mr. J. Renfrew White, Dunedin. In a very large percentage of cases the physical ills of adult life can be traced back to their commencement in childhood. There is a high incidence of such conditions as deformities, disorders of function, and the early stages of diseases themselves among the children in our primary schools. The conditions responsible for the production of these in childhood are largely due to defective hygiene in the home and in the school. Education in the primary school can do much to prevent the development of these conditions. More time should be devoted to physical training and physical activities as a part of the school curriculum, and provision made inside the school conducive to more hygienic conditions. Especially and basically more time should be devoted and more importance given in the training colleges to the training of the future teachers in the elements of knowledge, theoretical and practical, of the nature of the growing human body and its requirements, chemical, physical, and mechanical. Only in this way, through physical and health education in training college and school, can we hope to influence for the better —and then only gradually —the hygienic conditions of the pre-school child in the home, and through the education of those children in the schools who will in time become home makers and parents. The Committee was greatly impressed by the valuable work done by Mr. White in connection with the training of physical instructors for the primary schools, and is of opinion that the physical training manual which has been prepared by him for the use of teachers should be printed and circulated without delay. So far as facilities for carrying out corrective exercises are concerned the postprimary schools are usually in no way less advantageously placed than the primary schools. Many of them, indeed, employ full-time physical instructors who have been properly trained for their work, and great attention is paid to physical education in the playground as well as in the hall or gymnasium by teachers who, when appointed to their positions in the schools, are usually chosen partly for their skill in physical activities. Mr. Laurence Denny, President of the Christchurch Branch of the New Zealand Technical School Teachers' Association, stated in evidence that his branch of the association had urged for some considerable time the need for medical examination prior to and during adolescence.
3 f [ i Need for medical inspection in post- , primary schools.
r Evidence oi Mr. s J. Renfrew White. e 1 T
3 r j s i Physical training j manual necessary. C
- Physical training in r post-primary schools. 1
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Other witnesses referred to the necessity for increasing the time devoted to physical training, especially in the primary schools, where vigorous measures would, in the opinion of one witness, so build up the physique of the children as to enable them to meet much more easily the demands made on their endurance by the postprimary school curricula. Professor Hight emphasized the necessity for adequate training of physical instructors, and suggested that students should be sent Home for training, as is done, for example, in South Africa. The Committee is satisfied as to the necessity, value, and efficiency of the work done in the schools by the School Medical Service, and the close and loyal cooperation of the teachers and itinerant physical instructors, and recommends — (21) That the medical examination of children fee extended to include all primary and secondary school children in the Dominion, and that the training and duties of the teachers be so arranged as to enable them to give adequate attention to suitable physical education of the children in eases where the medical examination discloses a need for such education. CHAPTER XIX.—THE SCHOOL DENTAL SERVICE. The Committee visited and inspected several dental clinics during the course of its investigations and heard evidence from parents, members of School Committees, teachers, and others regarding their work. These were unanimous as to the incalculable good which the School Dental Service is doing wherever the clinics have been established, and as to the urgent need for their steady expansion to the country districts as speedily as this can be accomplished. The Dental Division of the Health Department employs eight dental surgeons and nearly one hundred dental nurses stationed at various centres throughout the Dominion. Some ninety main-treatment centres and nearly sixty sub-bases have been established. A large number of probationers are in training, and the work is being extended as rapidly as possible. During the year 1928 the total number of operations performed was 322,610, besides which, many children were examined and their teeth charted and the parents informed, with the result that many cases were treated at hospitals or by private practitioners. The instruction of children and parents in the measures to be taken for the prevention of dental disease has also been carried on by means largely of distributing printed leaflets embodying short terse rules. The extension of the work of the Division to the smaller centres, and especially to small country schools, though highly desirable, is extremely difficult. Some experiments have been made with travelling equipment, but without marked success. There is a growing appreciation of the value of the service throughout the country, and an insistent demand for its extension to all parts of the Dominion. Mr. S. E. Chappell, representing the Auckland School Committees' Association, while congratulating the Department on the manner in which school dental service is being developed, pressed for even greater speed in extending the work, and suggested that backblock schools should be served by means of travelling motorvans fitted up for the purpose. The same suggestion was put forward by Mr. R. Wild, Chairman of the Canterbury Education Board, while Mr. S. R. Evison, honorary secretary, Canterbury School Committees' Association, stated that country schools in Canterbury felt that they had been neglected in the matter of dental services, and his association, notwithstanding the experience in Auckland, was confident that in their district travelling clinics, either by motor or railway car, would enable dental services to be extended to districts which at present had no prospect of getting such services. The Rev. C. Brown, secretary of the Committee of the Oxford Consolidated School, expressed regret that in the organization of dental clinics the larger centres received preference, and suggested that the needs of country districts would be better met if the organization of the various dental clinics was made the duty of the Education Boards.
Recommendation.
Excellent work of School Dental Service.
Staff of Dental Division.
Number of operations performed.
Evidence of Auckland School Committees' Association.
Evidence of Chairman, Canterbury Education Board and Canterbury School Committees' Association.
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Upon these points the Committee obtained evidence from Lieut.-Colonel J. L. Saunders, Director of the Division of Dental Hygiene, whose statement was as follows :— Extract from the Evidence of Lieut.-Colonel J. L. Saunders, Director, Division oe Dental Hygiene. As the members of this Committee are aware, the school dental service is a comparatively new service. The first dental nurses went out in 1923, and there were, I think, speaking from memory, 25 clinics established in that year. To-day the service has grown, and there are now 170 clinics, consisting of 111 main centres and 59 sub-bases. The staff at present consists of the Director, two inspecting dental officers, the Superintendent and three assistant instructors at. the training-school, eight dental officers in districts, and 120 trained dental nurses in clinics throughout the country. In addition to that, there are seventy-eight probationer dental nurses in training. The personnel is selected with great care. Probationer dental nurses are appointed once each year, and on an average there are five applicants for every vacancy, so that enables the Department and the Public Service Commissioner to keep up a high standard. No one is appointed except on a personal interview, and all are interviewed who can show the best qualification on paper. The final selection is made by the Public Service Commissioner. The training is carried out in the Department's own training school in Wellington. The course occupies two years, and it is a carefully graded one which enables these young women at the end of their two years' training to go out and take charge of school dental clinics. Regarding the operations of the service, having got our trained dental nurses, I will deal first of all with how clinics come to be established. They are established in response to applications from local people —School Committees and local bodies of various kinds. A large number of the applications are constantly before the Department; I think at the present time they number something like 200. Once a year these are considered carefully, and the Minister of Health decides where clinics shall be established during the following year, when the next draft of dental nurses becomes available. In order to have a dental clinic established the local people must undertake certain responsibilities through their representative School Committee, Borough Council, or other body. First they must contribute towards the cost of erecting the building or towards the adaptation of some existing building that has been passed by the Department as suitable for adaptation. The usual procedure is to build a clinic to the standard plans which have been prepared by the Department. These have been evolved as the result of experience. When the local body has raised its funds, these are subsidized to the extent of £2 for £1 by the Education Department—not the Health Department in this case. A clinic is virtually a school building. I should, qualify that by saying that this is the case when a clinic is erected on school property or education, reserve. Having erected the building, of which the local people have paid one-third of the cost, the dental nurse is installed, and the professional work comes under the control of the Department of Health, of which the dental nurse in charge is an officer. The local people still have certain responsibilities. They are required to find the non-technical furnishings for the building, according to a list which has been drawn up as a result of experience. This is not a very expensive item ; probably £20 would cover the total cost. Also, they are required to pay certain maintenance expenses. This amount varies, but I think I would be safe in saying that, on an average, it costs the Committee about £40 a year for a one-nurse clinic. They are asked to pay such items as cleaning, heating, laundry, and incidental expenses of that kind. The whole professional expenses are borne by the Department of Health —salary, cost of stores and materials used, cost of equipment, and so on. With regard to the method of conducting a clinic once it has been established, the service aims at making the children dentally fit, and maintaining them in that condition. Some members of the public have the idea, I think, that when a dental clinic is established it stands in the same relation to the public as a private dental practitioner does, and that any child who has toothache can go when it pleases and get treatment at the clinic. This is not so. The aim is by regular and systematic treatment to keep children dentally fit over a period of years, so that a definite contribution is made towards improving their general health. To put it another way, the service is not to be regarded merely as a means of affording parents free dental treatment for their children ; it is a national movement with the object of raising the physical standard of the children. Then there is the question of how this is accomplished. Being a new service and by no means fully developed, we cannot treat every child, although it is hoped eventually to do so. At present it is necessary to draw the line somewhere, so when a clinic is first opened the dental nurse deals only with the children in the Primer classes of the schools in the vicinity. She examines the children, sends out forms to the parents asking their consent to treatment (no treatment is undertaken without the written consent of the parent), and, having received that, the child's mouth is put in order. All the children in the Primer classes are dealt with in this way, and then the children are re-examined as far as possible every six months thereafter, and any further defects are remedied. That is commenced while the children are in the Primer classes, and is continued as they pass up through Standards I, 11, 111, and IV. At present we have to stop at Standard IV owing to lack of staff. The original policy was, I think, that the service should be continued right throughout the primary school. Thus five years from the time of the establishment of a clinic the children in the Primer classes and in Standards I to IV are all under regular and systematic dental treatment. They are, therefore, being carried through with a clean mouth from the Primer classes to the Fourth Standard, which means that an important source of sepsis is eliminated during that important period of a child's development.
Evidence of Director, Division of Dental Hygiene.
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With regard to the question of how many children one dental nurse can look after, we have found from experience that a nurse can keep under regular treatment about 700 children, so that before we establish a clinic we have to see what number of children is available in the district. The ■schools that have been included in the dental group —that is, a district providing about 700 children up to the Fourth Standard—are taken in rotation, as we cannot deal with them simultaneously. A period of two years or more may therefore elapse before the whole of the schools constituting the dental group have been visited and all the children eligible are under treatment. It may happen— and it does happen more and more, especially as we get into the smaller centres —that it is not possible to concentrate 700 children at one centre. In such cases the establishment of a sub-base is authorized, and another group is built up on that sub-base. In more scattered districts, one dental nurse may have two or three sub-bases in addition to the main treatment centre. In the South Wairarapa, for example, there are three clinics—the headquarters at Greytown, a sub-base at Featherston, and another at Martinborough. There is a clinic erected at each place. Dental nurses work in cycles of six months. In each six months the nurse would spend a certain time at Greytown—say, three months ; perhaps six weeks at Featherston, and six weeks at Martinborough. Having been round the three centres, she would return to Greytown and start again. There are many instances of this method of working, and they are increasing every year, because we are getting more an d more into the sparsely populated districts. Many of the earlier clinics were established in the larger centres because the staff was limited and it was necessary to reach as many children as possible in as short a time as possible. That, briefly, is the method of operation of school dental clinics. The progress that has been made will probably be of interest to members of the Committee. I have already mentioned the number of clinics—lll main treatment clinics and 59 sub-bases, a total of 170. The number of schools receiving regular treatment at December, 1929, was 738 ; number of children under systematic treatment, 60,289. The treatment performed during 1929 included fillings, 190,934, and extractions, 71,128 ; miscellaneous operations amounted to 108,012, making a total for the year of 370,074. The total operations since the inception of the service amount to 1,700,000, in round figures. In addition to the treatment, I would like to mention another important activity of the school dental service, and that is the education of the children and parents in the principles of dental hygiene. The Department attaches great importance to this aspect of the work. A great deal of research work has been done in the Old Country and in this country on the question of the cause of dental disease, and, although no finality has been reached in the matter so far, sufficient is known to be able to lay down definite rules for the prevention of dental disease. If it cannot be entirely prevented, it can at least be reduced by attention to certain rules which it is the duty of dental nurses to pass on to the children, and, as far as possible, to parents. Of course, the full results of this service will not be apparent until the next generation —these children are being brought up to a realization of the benefits to be derived from the care of the teeth and mouth. It is part of their daily life, and we can assume that the next generation will benefit accordingly. Mr. Black : The Committee has had evidence in Auckland and Christchurch regarding the back-blocks-schools service, which they do not receive from your branch, and have suggested that there should be travelling clinics. .Have you gone into that aspect in recent years ? Witness: Yes. Mr. Black: You had an experiment in Auckland ? Witness : Yes, but it was not successful. There were two main disadvantages. The first was in connection with the professional side. A travelling clinic does not provide the proper facilities for working. At the best it is a makeshift —there is no drainage, no conveniences to enable one to do first-class work. There is also the question of finance. The extra cost involved in operating a travelling clinic is not justified by the extra amount of work that can be performed per medium of it. Mr. Black : What remedy would you suggest for the present difficulty ? Witness : To go on with the system we have adopted. We are extending the system of sub-bases and getting further back into the country districts. On this plan clinics are built at suitable centres and the children from the surrounding centres are concentrated there for treatment. That is the system in vogue. To quote an actual example —the nearest on a big scale is Wairarapa : There are two clinics at Masterton —one for the country district and one for the town itself. The children come to the country clinic from schools as far as forty miles out. The system of working is that there is a Dental Clinic Committee, on which there are representatives of the schools in the group. When the dental nurse wants to treat a certain school she informs the Chairman of the Committee that she requires, say, ten children on a certain day. The Chairman goes to the representative of that school, and it is his responsibility to have organized a system of transport among the parents of his school. This system works very effectively. Mr. Black : The members of this Committee visited, among others, the Oxford Consolidated School, and the secretary of that Consolidated School Committee expressed his opinion very strongly that the dental clinics were squeezed out by the larger centres. Witness : The establishment of clinics is not even considered for any district which does not apply for one. lam speaking from memory, but I think Oxford only applied last year. Mr. Black : Do you not think that is rather unfair on the people who may have no knowledge of the advantages of these clinics ? Witness: No, because if we forced a clinic on them we would not get the interest or financial support necessary. Mr. Black : Should not the health of the child be the paramount consideration ? Witness : We have now some 200 applications before the Department from bodies who are prepared to put up a clinic, and, of course, when they show their keenness in that manner they must be considered before we begin asking communities to establish clinics.
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The Chairman: Have you ever considered the question of travelling dental nurses, apart from travelling clinics ? In my district, which is very scattered, even the most remote part receives dental service about three or four times a year from travelling dentists. These men have no difficulty in getting rooms in any village. Witness : I think that is much on the same lines as the question asked about visiting places in the final stages in the development of the service which cannot be reached by any other means. But if it can be done we prefer to have the children from a group of schools concentrated at a centre. The Chairman : I had in view the isolated places in my district. The nurse has to travel some twenty miles by road, but still the nurse goes there and attends to the children. That would be more efficient and economical than a travelling clinic ? Witness: You would suggest that she be provided with a small car ? The Chairman : No ; that is not necessary. There are many places now where a mail-service is running, and she could make use of that means of transport ? Witness :We have what we call a travelling equipment made uj) in four packages, with proper covers, for that very purpose. That is being done. The Chairman : If that system were developed, do you not think it would be possible to reach the most remote districts with little expense ? Witness : Yes ; that is what we are hoping to do on the lines 011 which we are working. The Chairman : That is much better than a travelling clinic ? Witness : Yes, we think so. After careful consideration of the whole position in the light of the above evidence, the Committee came to the conclusion that the present organization of this service is thoroughly satisfactory, and that it would not be in the best interests of the work to recommend the system of travelling clinics as proposed. The Committee therefore passed the following resolution : — (22) That this Committee recognizes the great value of the present School Dental Service, and recommends its further extension to the country districts. CHAPTER XX.—OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS. Fifty years ago, when many of the school buildings still in use in the older settlements of the Dominion were erected, school hygiene was by no means an advanced science, and the architects and builders followed ancient precedents and erected in very substantial design and in permanent materials schools, often in traditional British ecclesiastical style, with steep roofs, narrow windows, and no ceilings. Little or no attention was paid to aspect, to lighting, or to ventilation, or to the proper arrangement of the class-rooms. Two or three teachers were often compelled to teach different classes at the same tme in the same room. The auxiliary cloak-room and other accommodation was usually very inadequate, dark, and ill ventilated. Externally the schools in many instances were not lacking in architectural dignity, but the playgrounds were usually cramped, and the buildings were sometimes erected without due regard to the uses of the playground, and in an architectural style which effectively prevented the class-rooms from being properly fitted for their purposes. Within the last quarter of a century the design of school buildings and the science of school hygiene have progressed with great rapidity, and it is now recognized that the internal conditions of the school class-room, laboratory, or workshop should be the main factors in the design. It is also recognized that conditions in the Southern Hemisphere are radically different, as regards the lighting of class-rooms, from those of the Northern Hemisphere, and that this difference alone profoundly affects the problem of school design. Geographical latitude and local conditions of climate and rainfall must also be carefully considered. Conditions of site and aspect must likewise be taken into account, since it is often impossible, especially in large towns, to secure an ideal site for a school. The school architect has, however, to consider other problems besides those concerning the physical welfare of the children and teachers. The school must not only be hygienic, but it must also serve its proper purposes as a place of training and instruction. Since to a considerable extent pedagogical methods depend on the accommodation and equipment provided for teaching, it is found
Recommendation
Defects of old type of school buildings,
Developments in school hygiene.
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that modem practice requires, and modern ideals demand, carefully arranged material conditions, in order that established principles of education based on ascertained psychological laws may be rightly applied. It is not surprising, therefore, that a type of school building which was evolved long ago from a monastic style suitable for its own purpose in a different hemisphere, latitude, and climate should be found unsuitable for present-day educational purposes in this Dominion. The breaking-down of old traditions in school design has naturally been followed by the development of several new types, each depending for its main characteristics on local conditions of site, latitude, and climate, as well as on the educational purposes which it serves and on the way in which problems of hygiene are solved. The importance of an appropriate architectural treatment is also recognized, it being generally admitted that beautiful buildings exercise a profound influence on the pupils, not only towards the refinement of their standards of aesthetic values, but even more beneficially in providing a worthy home for that intangible school spirit and personality which commands their loyalty and holds their affection long after they have gone out into the adult world. Hence it is still true that the lighting, ventilation, and internal arrangements of the school depend in a varying degree, according to the judgment and skill of the architect, on the architectural treatment. In the Dominion in recent years the tendency has been towards the adoption of more or less fixed general rules in the planning of school buildings, which, however, vary in application according to the size and purposes of the school, its site and locality, and the materials of which it is built. For class-rooms it is recognized that the ideal lighting is unilateral from a large unobstructed window surface to the left of the pupil, the window facing, in New Zealand, between east and north, according to latitude. As regards ventilation, the general rule adopted to suit New Zealand conditions is that there shall be free natural cross-ventilation of every room in the school. This condition clashes usually with that for ideal lighting, and compromises of various kinds are adopted. Heating is not considered necessary in all parts of the North Island, though it is gradually being provided for in most of the schools. The open fireplace is still the only means of heating in many schools. In the larger of the more modern schools some form of heating by radiators is usually adopted. For reasonably good natural cross-ventilation the school must, in general, be only one room deep—i.e., there must be no internal corridors with rooms opening off on both sides. Better cross-ventilation can probably be obtained by replacing the corridors by verandas and balconies, sometimes at the expense, however, of introducing difficulties depending on aspect and weather conditions. Still better ventilation, with increased difficulties from the point of view of site and organization and of meeting all kinds of weather conditions, is to be found in open-air class-rooms, which have been adopted in some centres. The open-air school may also be designed so that pupils may receive the benefits of direct sunlight, unfiltered by glass of any kind, without suffering any considerable inconvenience from glare or uncomfortable rise of temperature. Mr. Strong, in his evidence before your Committee, remarked that the modern building of the corridor type, such as the Avonside Girls' High School, Christchurch, which was inspected by the Committee, is so well ventilated and so well lighted that it is, in the opinion of the Department, quite as healthy as any open-air school, if the provision for ventilation is properly used. He further expressed the opinion that the open-air type, while quite suitable for schools of moderate size with a simple organization, is not so well suited to the needs of a large school, since too large a proportion of the site is occupied by buildings, the organization is hampered by the tendency to maintain a fixed class system, and there is difficulty, especially in adverse weather conditions, in breaking classes up into different units under specialist teachers. Further drawbacks mentioned were the difficulty of providing for the necessary amount of blackboard-space, and space for exhibiting work and pictures, &c. ; and of arranging for the proper care and protection of equipment, especially in laboratories and workshops, or for the proper use of equipment in an open-air room.
New types of buildings evolved.
General principles of school design.
Cross-ventilation essential.
Evidence of Director of Education.
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On the other hand, the advantages of the open-air class-room were strongly put by several of the witnesses examined by your Committee, which also inspected several types of open-air class-room during its tour of the Dominion. At New Plymouth an interesting type of fresh-air class-room adapted by the Education Board's Architect, Mr. Charles Moore, to the conditions of the Taranaki Province was described on behalf of the Board in the evidence of Mr. S. G. Smith, M.P., and it was stated that this particular type was popular with parents, pupils, and teachers, and was being used widely in the district. Dr. Be van Brown, Vice-President of the Open-air Schools League in Christchurch, submitted that the building of open-air schools would be much more economical, and would enable old buildings of a cold, sunless, and ill-ventilated type to be replaced at less than half the cost of rebuilding in permanent materials to designs of the corridor type ; while many of the old-fashioned small schools in the country could be converted at a reasonable cost into open-air schools, and so provide the children with healthy conditions of mind and body. Dr. Robert S. J. Fitzgerald, giving evidence at Oamaru, submitted that in all the schools in New Zealand there is a proportion of children who are physically subnormal, and these children are receiving their education under very undesirable conditions. Some kind of open-air school building should be attached to each primary school, and delicate children should be required to attend a modified form of school where the bodily system could be built up by sun, fresh air, and periods of rest. Dr. Fitzgerald also expressed the opinion that all infants' rooms should be of a suitable open-air type. Dr. Burnett, in his evidence before your Committee at Oxford, described a system of arbour class-rooms—i.e., sheltered bays adjoining open-air class-rooms— which were being established in connection with the consolidated district high school at Oxford, which would be used on suitable occasions, the open-air classrooms being reserved as retreats in bad weather. Dr. Burnett also stressed the necessity for careful design of the open-air rooms in order to secure permanent structural rigidity and durability, together with convenience in manipulation of windows and doors. The Rev. C. Brown, giving evidence at Oxford, stressed the necessity for intelligent management of the open-air class-rooms so that the children would neither be roasted to death in the summer by the heat of the sun on the great expanse of glass nor frozen in winter through mismanagement of the heating-apparatus. Miss Elsie Andrews, giving evidence as president of the New Zealand Women Teachers' Association, expressed the opinion that the time had come when more attention must be paid to school buildings to make them hygienic, comfortable, beautiful, and suitable to the needs of the children, teachers, and modern methods of education. Corridors should be replaced by verandas, with direct access to the playground from the class-room ; the windows should be large, low, and glazed only with clear glass, and should always be made to open so as to allow for the maximum of light, air, sun, and view. Professor Shelley urged that the open-air class-room is just as necessary from the psychological as it is from the physiological point of view. He expressed the opinion that the child should have free access to the open air at all times during the day, so that education may be made more and more practical, all subjects being taught in direct contact with the open air, away from the stillness and dead silence of the ordinary class-room. After hearing the evidence and inspecting open-air schools in various parts of the Dominion your Committee recommends — (23) That the adoption of the open-air type of school be encouraged where new schools and class-rooms are required.
Taranaki type of open-air school.
Evidence of Christchureh Open-air Schools League,
Open-air school at Oxford.
Evidence of New Zealand Women Teachers' Association.
Recommendation.
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CHAPTER XXI.—HOME-WORK AND CORPORAL PUNISHMENT. There is evidence that excessive home-work at night specifically strains the eyes of the children and generally does them harm rather than good, both physically and mentally, by depriving them of their rightful hours of health-giving recreation and leisure. In the same way the Committee is of opinion that corporal punishment, if at all common in a school, has a degrading effect upon the self-respect of all the pupils, and militates against rather than furthers the development of strength of character of noble type. Happily, the new movement in education has made its influence felt not only in the general orientation and organization of modern education systems, and in the provision of hygienic school conditions in the way of buildings, playing-fields, and special services, but in the technique of the teacher as well. Unfortunately, this has not yet permeated the whole service, and the fact that there are still remaining some taskmasters of the old type has rendered it necessary for the Committee to give consideration to such details of the teachjers' work as the setting of home-work and the maintenance of discipline. In doing so, however, the Committee desires to place on record its appreciation of the high ideals of the New Zealand teaching service, and the high standards of professional work which its own inspection of all types of schools revealed. The recommendations which it has to make in this chapter are, it is convinced, wholly unnecessary as regards the great majority of teachers, and the Committee trusts that as a result of the attention here called to the practices complained of the teaching technique of the minority will be brought into line with that of more advanced and more expert professional opinion and practice. It is scarcely necessary to argue in these days that the work of the teacher is to teach the children in school, not to hear lessons learnt at home. This is so in all stages of education from the lowest to the highest. It is clear, however, that the rigid external-examination system has in the past rendered inevitable a considerable measure of text-book cramming out of school hours, particularly in the post-primary stages. The Committee trusts that the changes recommended in other sections of this report will at least reduce this to a minimum. As regards the elementary stage, the Committee was impressed by the number of schools successfully conducted upon the principle of setting no formal home-work at all. This it considers the ideal towards which every teacher should aim. It does not, however, feel that it should take the extreme step of prescribing that home - work should be entirely abolished ; but it is definitely of opinion that in subjects such as grammar and arithmetic no home-work should be permitted in the primary schools, and that in the post-primary as well as the primary schools the imposition of home-work should be reduced to a minimum. With regard to the question of discipline, the Committee feels that the same conditions should obtain in the life of the school as are to be found in the larger life of the general community. It recognizes that there must reside in the government of the school ultimate power to maintain order, and, if necessary, to resort to extreme measures to this end. But, just as the moral standards and tone of any civilized community are in general in inverse proportion to the extent to which its gallows and gaols are in use, in the same way in a school or class-room the discipline and tone may be gauged by the degree to which recourse is had by the teacher to the stick and the detention class. The Committee was impressed in many schools by the fact that the arm of the law, as represented by the teacher's right to enforce discipline, was as unobtrusive as it is in any community of selfrespecting, law-abiding citizens. The establishment of the habit of self-discipline is, therefore, the ideal, and the Committee had abundant evidence that this ideal is being increasingly realized by New Zealand teachers in the organization and administration of their schools. It was apparent, however, that there are still to be found a few martinets whose tendency is to abuse their position and authority by what the Committee considers excessive recourse to coercive measures of discipline ; and it is with a view to bringing some restraining influence to bear upon these that the Committee has thought it necessary to require that all teachers should be compelled to enter in the school records full particulars of every case of infliction by them of corporal punishment. In schools which have
11l effect of excessive homework.
High standards of New Zealand teachers.
Learning at school.
The ideal to be aimed at.
The necessity for discipline.
Self-government the ideal.
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two or more teachers the Committee is of opinion that there is a good case to be made out for the infliction of corporal punishment, should such be necessary, by the head teacher alone, and then only after due inquiry into all the circumstances of the case. The Committee therefore resolved— (24) (a) That, in the opinion of the Committee, home-work in the i primary schools should not be necessary; that in the primary schools the setting of home-work in grammar and arithmetic should be prohibited ; and that in all schools, post-primary as well as primary, the imposition of home-work should be reduced to a minimum. (b) That corporal punishment be reduced to a minimum, and that a record be kept in all cases where it is inflicted. CHAPTER XXII.—SPECIAL CLASSES FOR BACKWARD CHILDREN. Great attention has been paid in recent years to the educational problems ! presented by the retarded and the mentally defective children. The cases dealt ! with under the Education Act fall roughly into three classes. In the first class are those who are retarded in their school-work through no defect of ability, but through such causes as irregular attendance or late admission to school, whether this be occasioned by sickness or lack of opportunity. These children are quite capable of learning along with the normal children in the ordinary school classes, and in general need no special educational treatment. The second class consists of children not physically unable to learn in the ordinary classes, but so far subnormal mentally as to be unable to benefit by the ordinary class instruction in normal classes, while still educable up to a moderate standard under suitable conditions. The third class includes children not idiot or imbecile or otherwise proper persons to be sent to an institution under the control of the Mental Hospitals Department, who through physical, mental, or moral infirmities can only be properly cared for in special schools established under Part IX of the Education Act, 1914. It is not necessary further to consider the first of these three classes, since the children in this class can be cared for reasonably well in the ordinary schools. As regards the third class, also, the provision already made under the Act appears to be sufficiently wide in scope and varied in character to meet the present necessities. The second class, consisting of those children who are neither fit for the rough-and-tumble of ordinary school life nor so far handicapped physically or mentally as to be proper subjects for treatment in one or other of the special schools, presents difficulties of diagnosis and treatment which have not hitherto been satisfactorily overcome. The Committee visited the special school at Otekaike and desires to place on s record its appreciation of the excellent work being done in this and the similar , institution at Richmond, and also of the action of the Hon. the Minister of Education in equipping them both with modern wireless and motion picture apparatus. The Committee is of opinion that these additions to the equipment of the schools will contribute materially to the training and mental development of these unfortunate children. The Director of Education, in his evidence before the Committee, stated that ' the Education Department had been criticized for not possessing a trained 1 psychologist who would not only help teachers to overcome their difficulties with the " problem" child, but would also advise on the selection and training of educable mental defectives, adding that the Department had long felt the need for such an officer. Professor J. Shelley and Dr. C. Beeby, of Canterbury College, giving evidence j in regard to vocational guidance, pointed out that psychological testing is 1 necessarily the work of a fully trained psychologist. In the hands of the ordinary
Recommendation.
Special classes recognized by Education Act.
Special equipment at Otekaike and Richmond Schools.
The problem child.
Psychological testing the work of the expert.
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teacher, without special training, the tests are worse than useless. There is no rigid and mechanical system of tests which can safely be entrusted to the mere routine " mental tester." The interpretation of exhaustive test results, in the case of every individual child, demands an extensive knowledge of psychology. Such tests, moreover, involve the use of elaborate and delicate apparatus, especially in regard to testing special abilities, a matter of great importance in diagnosing cases of subnormal general intelligence. It has not been found possible, therefore, nor is it perhaps necessary, to establish such an organization as would permit of the complete scientific investigation of all cases on the lines followed by Professor Shelley and Dr. Beeby in the Psychological Laboratory at Canterbury College. For the purpose of selecting those children who should be included in the class of educable mental defectives the methods at present adopted by the Department appear to be sufficiently accurate, especially as in many cases the inclusion or rejection of a child depends to a large extent on circumstances outside the scope of the psychological tests, such as the character of the home in which the child lives and the question of transportto and from class. The present practice in regard to these children is to provide, where possible, special classes attended solely by retardates of this kind, under teachers who are specially selected for the work. It is found that the children are brighter and happier and make more progress in such circumstances than they were able to make in the ordinary class-rooms, and that their special aptitudes, if any, are more easily discovered and cultivated. Miss W. A. Valentine, Supervisor of these classes, in her evidence before the Committee, stated that there are in the Dominion some thirty classes for backward children, which are established in connection with primary schools in centres where a sufficient number of retardate children can attend to form a class. The classes are usually small, the roll number being about sixteen, though some classes include as many as twenty. Some of the children are definitely mentally defective, but still quite educable. Others are subnormal only in the sense that they learn academic subjects much more slowly than children of average ability, and consequently cannot keep up with boys and girls of their own age in the ordinary school classes. Through frequent failure in class-work they tend to develop a sense of inferiority, which further aggravates their disabilities. In manual ability they are often much more nearly normal, and it is through manual work that they make the greatest progress educationally. In the special classes they are given individual instruction in academic subjects, but few reach a standard higher than Standard 111. At present they may leave school at the age of 14 years, but many stay till they are 15 or even 16 years of age. In England the Mental Deficiency Committee, reporting in 1929, recommends reduction of the legal leaving age for special-class children from 16 years, the present limit, to 15. The English report further recommends a break at 11 plus years of age for the special classes, since this is the age at which the normal children are to be transferred from the primary schools. Miss W. A. Valentine expressed the opinion that 12 was a more suitable age for transfer to new activities, which, in her view, should be mainly manual training of a more advanced character for children between the ages of 12 and 15 years, provided that they have been in a special class for some time and have benefited by the more elementary work ; and suggested that the next development for special classes should be the establishment of manual training centres specially for these children. This would mean bringing together the older boys and girls to a central school, the boys to receive instruction in such occupations as advanced woodwork, wirework, metalwork, leatherwork, toy-making, &c., and the girls in cooking, cleaning, needlework, dressmaking, laundry-work, &c. In Auckland, for example, the older children could be brought together as they reach the age of 12 from the seven special classes now in existence to a school in the centre of the city —say, the old Newton East School. The question of transport would offer some difficulty, as some parents could not afford the necessary train fares, and the children would not get the benefit of the more advanced training. Even with seven classes in Auckland, difficulties of this kind arose.
The Psychological Laboratory at Canterbury College,
Evidence of Supervisor of Special Classes.
Types of problem child.
Suitable age for transfer to new activities.
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After appropriate manual training to the age of 15 years or more under specialist teachers some of the children would be able to go into ordinary employment, and might even become in time fully self-supporting. Suitable and permanent employment is, however, difficult for these children to obtain, and most of them tend to drift round from one job to another. It is probable that in New Zealand, as in other countries, not more than 25 per cent, will become completely selfsupporting. Miss Valentine further suggested that it might be found necessary to provide occupational centres for adult retardates who are unable to compete with normal people for their living. In such occupational centres the employees might be given such training as they were able to receive by expert tradesmen, who would direct all their work and gradually prepare them to follow suitable occupations under direct and careful supervision, which in a large proportion of the cases would be always necessary. In this way they might become almost self-supporting, and would, in any case, be well cared for, and not so much exposed to dangers and temptations as they would be if they had to compete under ordinary conditions in the open labour market. After the children had attended for two or three years under a specialist teacher at the manual training centre, it would be definitely known which of them could be allowed to enter into the activities of the general community and compete with others in factory and workshop, and also which of the remainder, while not fit to go out into the world, would not be so defective that it would be necessary to send them to institutions for the feeble-minded. Such children, especially if they came from good homes, where they were well cared for, might make very useful citizens if placed in an industry which was in some way protected, and where they themselves were protected. If sent into an ordinary factory they might be able to do good work, but in many cases would be made to feel their inferiority, and would become unhappy and wander from one position to another. In an occupation centre under wise and sympathetic supervision they would be much more likely to reach happiness and contentment. Even in the case of those children who are allowed to go into outside employment, after-care workers are, in the opinion of Mr. Strong, much needed to guide the children after they leave school, in order to help them to get employment and to see that the employers treat them sympathetically. The Committee was deeply impressed with the need for supplementing the admirable work being done in the special classes for backward children and recommends — (25) That manual training facilities for special class children be extended, and that occupational centres be established for such of these children as have completed their school training, but are unable to compete in ordinary occupations. CHAPTER XXIII.—THE EDUCATION OF THE DEAF. The Committee visited the School for the Deaf at Sumner, and observed the nature and standard of the work being accomplished there and the conditions under which the pupils' training is carried out. It was found that the school admits three classes of children : (a) Deaf children whose hearing is so defective that they are dumb ; (b) hard-of-hearing children who have acquired language before the onset of their deficiency ; and (c) hearing children with defective speech. Children in the last class attend mostly as part-time day pupils. The children are taught by the " purely oral " method to speak orally, and to read, the speech of others by watching the speaker's lips. The syllabus they follow includes, in addition to the ordinary primary school class-room subjects, moral instruction, woodwork, sewing, gardening, domestic work, and physical training. The girls play basketball, and have recently had a course in English country
Occupational centres lor adult retardates.
Training lor community life,
Recommendation
The School for the Deaf at Sumner
School curriculum
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dancing ; the boys play football; and both boys and girls compete in the local athletic sports meetings. So far as possible, the defects that are inherent in" an institutional life are remedied by encouraging the pupils to participate in the athletic activities of the young folk around them. The teaching in the early stages is almost entirely individual, and all the classes are necessarily small, varying from seven to twelve pupils each. Here also the Committee is pleased to record the fact that at the instance of the Hon. the Minister of Education, the equipment necessary for the display of motion pictures has recently been installed -a provision which in its opinion will be not only of very great interest to the children, but also of invaluable assistance to the instructors in their work. In connection with the school at Sumner,. classes for hard-of-hearing children and for the correction of defective speech in children were established some years ago in Auckland, Wellington, and Dunedin ; in Christchurch children of these types attend the Sumner School, generally as day pupils. In Auckland, for example, there were last year nine hard-of-hearing children and thirty-two speech defectives in attendance at the special class, and twenty-four adults attended an evening class for lip-reading. The teachers in charge of these classes are specially qualified, and have been trained for their work at Sumner. An Auckland lady who had visited schools for the deaf in England and Scotland gave evidence before the Committee on the need for doing more for the very young deaf children. She contended that something ought to be done for the deaf child as soon as his mother realizes he is deaf, and schools ought to be provided to deal with the education of the very young child. In Britain and America nursery schools had been established for children of 2|- years of age and upwards, and visiting teachers had been appointed to assist mothers to train the children before they go to school. In New Zealand the earliest age at which a child is admitted to Sumner is 6 or 7 years, and nothing is done for deaf children below that age. The same witness was opposed to an institutional school of the Sumner type :" a large boarding establishment for deaf children has drawbacks peculiarly its own ;if deaf children are confined in an institution with their own kind they do not develop along the same lines as the normal hearing child ; if you shut the deaf child up with his own kind you will stunt his development." The fact that the only school for deaf children was at Sumner was a great hardship to both children and parents, and a greater expense than was necessary to the Government. She therefore urged the establishment of a day school for the deaf in Auckland. Mr. J. M. B. Crawford, Director of the school at Sumner, in a report to your Committee, stated that it was not obligatory upon parents to board their children at the school, and that there was no reason why parents should not arrange for private board for their children if they so wished. The day pupils paid no school fees. "As regards the drawbacks of an institution," he went on to say, "if these deaf children could be boarded out with educated people who would take a real interest in them, that would be of advantage in the way of bringing them in contact with hearing ; but that is a gospel of perfection. Years ago I saw some of these children boarded out because of overcrowding in the old school. I saw these children playing about in the streets, being made sport of by hearing children, called ' dummies,' &c., and I am glad that such a system no longer exists." He pointed out that if a day school were established in Auckland with an attendance of about twenty —there are at present ten children at Sumner from Auckland and its environs —it would be quite impossible for a small staff to cope with that number of children in four or five classes at different stages of development; the appointment of a large staff, on the other hand, would obviously be costly, and not less expensive than the present system. The Auckland witness also urged that more should be done for the after-care of the deaf, and that the children should get a chance to train for suitable employment. In Manchester, she said, the boys received training in trades such a bootmaking, tailoring, and carpentry, and the girls in dressmaking and millinery. On this point Mr. Crawford informed the Committee that, in general, the ex-pupils of the Sumner School became absorbed in the working life of the community without any apparent difficulty. During the past seven years only three ex-pupils had
Cinema apparatus installed.
Classes in other centres.
Suggested improvements.
Evidence of Director of Sumner School.
The after-care of the deaf.
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asked him to find employment for them. Several boys are employed in the Post Office as letter-sorters ; others are engaged in bootmaldng, tailoring, brassfounding, carpentering, &c. ; many girls obtained employment at dressmaking or millinery. The Committee was impressed by the provision that has already been made for the education of the deaf and the hard-of-hearing children, but feels that there is room for expansion of this work in the large centres other than Christchurch. It therefore recommends— (26) That the classes for the teaching of deaf children that have already been established in Auckland, Wellington, and Dunedin be continued, and that the scope of their activities be extended so as to include the education of very young deaf children. SECTION 5. —GENERAL. CHAPTER XXIV.—RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN STATE SCHOOLS. The much vexed questions revolving round the teaching of religion in the State primary schools were dealt with at some length by a considerable number of witnesses. Whilst all the witnesses, including the Rev. Father Gilbert, Rector of St. Bede's College, were at one in condemning an entirely secular system such as has been established by the State in New Zealand, they were by no means agreed as to how the alleged deficiencies of the existing system should be removed. Father Gilbert stated the position of the Catholics as follows : — Extract prom the Evidence op the Rev. Father Gilbert, Rector, St. Bede's College, Christchurch. We Catholics submit that a secular system of education is wrong in principle : it eliminates a ; most important factor in life ; it ostracizes religion and its concomitant, Christian morality, which is based on Christian teaching. Moral lessons may be inculcated, if at all, only on naturalistic 1 motives. . . . We wish to record a formal protest, under the circumstances, against any infringement of the neutrality of the State in this regard by the introduction of Bible reading in State schools. The Rev. E. 0. Blamires, secretary of the Bible in Schools League, summarized the League's attitude as follows : — Extract from the Evidence op the Rev. E. 0. Blamires, Secretary op the Bible in Schools League. The League is happy in recognizing that the Education Department, in the new syllabus, regards ] character training as the principal function that the State calls upon the teacher to perform. This S clear recognition of the need of a moral basis for education seems inevitably to lead to religious elements ' and sanctions. The League submits that the responsibility for making adequate provision for education in religion and morals, such as will make for good character, rests on the State as much as on the Church, according as the task is undertaken of educating the young. At present the State has taken this task upon herself. Apart from its value as a storehouse of moral instruction, the introduction of the Bible into the State schools was advocated for other reasons : it was claimed as the greatest of all English classics, in which, more than in any other book, are preserved the elements of simplicity and beauty in our language, and the foundation of our national life. The introduction of Bible-reading in schools, it was stated, would increase the power of teachers as religious men and women to do good ; and, finally, it was asserted that the Bible in schools was desired by the great majority of the people of the Dominion. It was just at this point that confusion arose. Several witnesses stated that D about 80 per cent, of the parents were in favour of the introduction of the Bible oj into the schools, but what form this introduction should take was not at all clear— 9*
Recommendation.
Evidence of Rector, St. Bede's College.
Evidence of Secretary of Bible in Schools League.
Differences of )pinion.
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whether, for example, it was to be taught as an ordinary school lesson by the teachers, as in England and Scotland, or by visiting clergymen inside of school hours, as in New South Wales, or whether it was to be read by the teachers as part of the opening religious exercises, as advocated by the Religious Exercises in Schools Bill of 1928, was in most cases left indeterminate. It appeared, however, from the evidence submitted that there were four possible ways of obtaining a greater or less measure of Bible instruction in the schools— (a) The English and Scottish system ; (b) The New South Wales system ; (c) The Nelson system ; (d) The procedure outlined in the Religious Exercises in Schools Bill of 1928. In England and Wales the Education Acts of 1870 and 1921 provide that religious instruction must be given at the beginning or the end of the school day, or at both the beginning and the end ; that any child may be withdrawn during the time religious instruction is being given ; and that "no religious catechism or religious formulary which is distinctive of any particular denomination shall be taught in the school." Sectarian teaching is thus forbidden. Colonel John Studholme, of Christchurch, who in a recent visit to England had made extensive inquiries into the working of the British system, stated that whilst most local education authorities drew attention to this prohibition, and emphasized that it must be strictly observed both in letter and in spirit, the same authorities directed " that the Bible shall be read and such explanations and such instruction therefrom in the principles of the Christian religion and of morality shall be given as are suited to the capacities of children." The teachers are entrusted with the work, and are able, according to all the directors of local authorities interviewed by Colonel Studholme, to carry it out without contravening the letter or the spirit of the Act and without arousing sectarian bitterness or any other trouble. The usual practice seemed to be to open the school daily with prayer and hymns, and in addition to give half an hour daily to religious instruction. Witnesses who referred to this system admitted that if it were adopted here it would be necessary to train teachers specially for the work, as in England and in Scotland. The Committee felt that there was no great desire on the part of witnesses to see the English practice introduced into our education system. The Rev. H. K. Archdall. Headmaster of King's College, Auckland, advocated the New South Wales system, which, he said, respects the conviction of parents and at the same time does not force the State teacher to do that which he or she is not necessarily fit to do. Extract from the Evidence of the Rev. IT. K. Archdall, M.A., Headmaster, King's College, Auckland. I believe that the only solution of this vexed question is to allow ministers of different denominations, or their accredited representatives, the right to enter State schools in school hours and teach their own children the Christian faith and practice as the parents of these children desire them to be taught. Mr. Archdall said, further, that he had had four years' experience of the system in the industrial districts of Newcastle (N.S.W.), and had experienced no difficulty in its application, and that, in his opinion, the Nelson system, on the one hand, was inadequate, while the Religious Exercises in Schools Bill was, on the other hand, unjust to the teachers. The New South Wales system frankly encourages sectarian teaching, but relieves the school-teacher of the duty of giving religious instruction. Its adoption was not advocated by other witnesses and the Bible in Schools League is opposed to sectarianism. In this connection the Committee found it difficult to understand how it is that the ministers of New South Wales are able to arrange satisfactorily for religious instruction to be given by visiting clergymen or their accredited representatives in the schools in that State, while in New Zealand the needs of only 10 per cent, of the schools are met in this way.
Four methods possible.
Evidence of Headmaster, King's College.
The New South Wales system.
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Under the Nelson system ministers of religion or other voluntary instructors may, subject to the consent of the School Committee, give Bible lessons to the children in the schools outside school hours for one half-hour a week. The attendance of the children is voluntary, and any parent may withdraw his child from the class if he so desires. A few Boards have until recently hampered the establishment of these classes by refusing to permit the Committees to shorten on one day of the week the hours of secular instruction to four, the minimum prescribed in the Act. Where the embargo has in late years been removed, as in Auckland, the movement has spread rapidly, especially in the cities. It was stated that at Rotorua a few years ago the parents voted for the adoption of this system in the proportion of sixteen to one. Evidence was given in Auckland that so far as the Remuera district was concerned the ministers worked in the utmost harmony, and that the teachers were enthusiastic in their support of the system. Other witnesses, nearly all of them active participants in the measure of religious instruction that was possible under the Nelson system, were in agreement in stating that the system, so far as it went, worked smoothly and with a very great measure of success. They were unanimous, however, in claiming that it was inadequate for the purpose, and that it had serious defects, which, however, in their opinion, might be remedied by the adoption of other methods of procedure. Witnesses who were not wholly satisfied with the Nelson procedure pinned their faith on the proposals embodied in the Religious Exercises in Schools Bill of 1928 — viz., the opening of the school daily with religious exercises, occupying from fifteen to twenty minutes, comprising (a) the recitation of the Lord's Prayer, (b) the singing of a hymn from a school hymnal, and (c) the reading by the teacher or pupils of passages of Scripture from a Bible manual, such reading to be without interpretation or comment other than is reasonably necessary for verbal explanation. The usual conscience clauses for both teachers and pupils were included in the Bill, and sectarian instruction was forbidden. It was stated that there was a very large body of public opinion supporting the Bill. The Christchurch committee of the Bible in Schools League stated that in 1927 it had taken a plebiscite of the parents of the primary school children throughout New Zealand ; not quite 30,000 parents took the trouble to vote, but of the valid votes cast 81-7 per cent, were in favour of the Bill. A questionnaire sent out to some thousands of teachers in the same year had met with a similar poor response, but of the 884 teachers who replied 60 per cent, were in favour of the Bill's proposals. It was pointed out by the League witnesses that the secondary and technical schools, with some 25,000 pupils, already have religious exercises, and it was claimed that an extension to the primary schools of a procedure already in vogue in post-primary schools was both desirable and practicable. On the other hand, it was admitted that the Educational Institute had consistently opposed the introduction of any system which proposed that religious instruction should be given, or religious exercises conducted, by State teachers. It was, moreover, stated in evidence that the Institute was opposed on principle to this matter being decided by referendum, but that it had no such objection to the inclusion in the School Journal of suitable literary excerpts from the Scriptures. Witnesses, in answer to questions put by members of the Committee, admitted that under the methods of the Religious Exercises Bill the amount of actual ; instruction permitted was very limited indeed, as the teacher was restricted to the explanation of verbal or textual difficulties. Archdeacon Chatterton, of Rotorua, stated that if the Nelson system could be applied effectively to every school in the country he would prefer it to that proposed in the Bill. The Committee, after reviewing the evidence submitted on behalf of the various schemes, did not feel justified in advocating any radical change in the existing practice. From investigations made by the Committee it appeared that at the present time the facilities offered for religious instruction under the Nelson system are 1 taken advantage of, as already stated, in approximately only 10 per cent, of the schools of the Dominion. The Committee is of opinion that, provided the way is opened for the Dominion-wide operation of the system, much greater use could be made of the opportunities offered ; and a recommendation has been made with
3 The Nelson system. J
Religious Exercises in Schools Bill, 1928.
Bible in Schools League plebiscite.
Educational Institute viewpoint.
Amount of actual instruetion very limited.
Nelson system not fully availed of.
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that object. It was further of opinion that the extension of this system would be greatly promoted if teachers who desired to do so were permitted to assist in connection with it. To this course the Committee can see no objection, provided that such assistance is entirely voluntary, and is given in the teacher's private capacity out of school hours, as the system provides. On the other hand, the Committee is strongly opposed to anything being permitted that will compel any State teacher to disclose his or her religious convictions or adherence to any particular denomination, or to take part in any religious exercises other than of his or her own free will; and the Committee has consequently also made a recommendation to that effect. Apart from the general principle of the individual's right to the privacy of his religious belief, there are other considerations which induced the Committee to make this recommendation. Investigations made show that there are in New Zealand at present 1,537 schools at which there is only one teacher, and 551 schools at which there are only two teachers. Approximately more than 75 per cent, of the Dominion's schools come within one or other of these grades. The teachers in charge are, in general, the junior members of the teaching service. The Committee feels that in such schools it would be disastrous to the regular work of the school if anything, were done to force these young teachers into a position in which they were driven to make avowal of their private convictions on religious questions upon which the parents of the children attending the schools in all probability hold strong, and possibly antagonistic, views. The position is somewhat different in the secondary schools, which are all located in centres of large population, and have larger staffs, although even in these there is always the possibility of considerable difficulty arising in the event of the headmaster of a school finding himself unable conscientiously to conduct the religious exercises now customary in these schools. A similar need exists for the protection of the conscientious scruples of the parents and pupils, and the Committee desires to record its conviction that, in any system of religious instruction that may be permitted, adequate safeguards should be provided to this end. The Committee therefore recommends:— (27) (a) That no system of religious instruction in State schools should be authorized such as will compulsorily require any State teacher to disclose his or her religious beliefs or his or her adherence to any particular denomination, or to take part in religious exercises other than of his or her own free will; but that, on the other hand, the fullest liberty should be given to those teachers who desire of their own accord to assist in the Nelson or any similar system of religious instruction that may be authorized by law. (■b) That the following clause be inserted in the Education Act, namely: "Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the principal Act or in any direction given by the Board, if accredited persons approved by the Minister desire to give moral and religious instruction of a voluntary nature in schoolbuildings, the ordinary opening hour of the school shall be postponed, or the ordinary closing hour in the afternoon shall be advanced, on one day in each week, as agreed upon, for not more than half an hour, in order to enable the instruction to be conveniently given : "Provided that no alteration shall be made in the opening or closing hours which would reduce the number of hours to be devoted on that day to secular instruction to less than the minimum of four hours fixed by the principal Act."
No State school teacher should be compelled to disclose his or her religious belief.
Conscience clause for parents and pupils.
Recommendations
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CHAPTER XXV.—THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. At the Fourth Assembly of the League of Nations, in 1923, a resolution was adopted, on the motion of Dame Edith Lyttelton, a delegate of the British Government, which specifically urged the Governments of the States members to arrange that the children and youth in their respective countries should be made aware of the existence and aims of the League. The British League of Nations Union has recently published a booklet which contains a detailed account of the response that has been made to this resolution by the various countries of the world. The pamphlet states that instruction on the work of the League is being given in the schools of every European country except the two that are not members of the League ; that similar instruction is being given in Japan, India, Burma, and Siam, in the United States of America, and in each of the overseas Dominions of the British Empire ; and that during the last two years the countries of Latin America have also begun to fall into line. On the face of it, this report appears to give cause for satisfaction and encouragement. Ardent supporters of the League of Nations, however, as well as other competent observers, are not inclined to attach too much importance to a bare recital of the fact that instruction is being given in the schools. They fear that the teaching is often perfunctory in character and frequently based upon meagre and unreliable information. The Dominion Council of the New Zealand League of Nations Union, in particular, is concerned with what, in its opinion, is the insufficient attention paid to the subject in the schools of the Dominion. A strong delegation from the Council submitted evidence to the Committee, and stressed the claim that there was need for further action by the Education Department both in ensuring that systematic and regular instruction be given and also in providing teachers with a regular supply of full and reliable information. It may be well to state here that the subject is not entirely neglected either in our primary or post-primary schools. In the Syllabus of Instruction for Public Schools the " humanitarian and social work of the League of Nations " is specifically set forth as a topic for study in Standard VI history, and " The League of Nations " is similarly set down in the Standard VII syllabus. Articles on the League and various aspects of its work have been published from time to time in the Education Gazette, and eight-page articles.on it appeared in the School Journal in July, 1924, and June, 1926. Witnesses contended that this was not enough, and that there was a distinct need for more attention being paid to the efficiency of the instruction in the subject. The Rev. Dr. Gibb, president of the Dominion League of Nations Union, stressed the point that if the children and youth of New Zealand are to understand and later on to discharge intelligently their duties of citizenship, both national and international, then they must necessarily possess some definite knowledge of the ideals and methods as well as the achievements of the League. Speaking of what the League has already accomplished in the past few years, Dr. Gibb stated that it seemed to him " almost a criminal neglect that our children and youth should not be fully instructed about these happenings, which mean so much for human welfare and the peace of the world." Mr. Walter Nash, M.P., treasurer of the Dominion Union, in the course of his evidence made several practical suggestions which greatly impressed your Committee. Extract from the Evidence of Mr. Walter Nash, M.P., Honorary Treasurer of the New Zealand League of Nations Union. The aims, objects, and achievements of the League of Nations should be given an important place in the curriculum of the training colleges and Universities, and every teacher should be immediately supplied with such literature as will enable him to obtain a reasonably full account of the work and achievement of the League of Nations and of the International Labour Office. The necessary literature is already available. I suggest that the Committee recommend that the Education Department supply every teacher with a copy of the booklet, " Teachers and World Peace," recently published by the League of Nations Union. This booklet should be sent to every teacher, with a covering letter from the Minister and the Director of Education setting ; out the importance of the League. I also suggest that a copy of the League of Nations map of the world should be placed in every school throughout the Dominion.
The League of Nations USion.
Importance of work in the schools.
What has been accomplished in New Zealand.
Evidence of President of Dominion League of Nations Union.
Evidence of Treasurer of the New Zealand League of Nations Union.
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Recommendation.
The Committee was impressed by the validity of the case presented by the witnesses, and recommends— (28) That, in view of the great importance to humanity of the League of Nations, steps should be taken immediately to ensure that in all training colleges and schools the history, constitution, achievements and objects of the League should be effectively taught. CHAPTER XXVI.—EDUCATION OF NATIVE RACES. One of the most interesting visits of inspection paid by the Committee was that to the Native school at Whakarewarewa, where the members were much impressed with the excellent work done, and, in particular, with the splendid tone and spirit displayed by the pupils. Investigations made in other directions confirmed the impressions there made, and served to show that the Education Department has succeeded in bringing these schools to a very high standard of achievement, fully comparable with that of the pakeha schools. In particular the Committee desires to place on record its appreciation of the increasing improvements effected in the hygienic conditions of the Native schools and of the splendid response made by parents and children of the Native race to the efforts of the Education Department to provide the best possible facilities for them. The happy and successful results achieved have been recognized overseas, and many inquiries have been received by both the Education Department and the Department of Native Affairs for information relating to the methods adopted by the Native Schools Branch, which has charge of their organization and administration. In these circumstances the Committee felt that steps should be taken to extend the benefit of the same administration to the education of Natives in the outlying islands which are under the control of the New Zealand Government. For many years the schools in the Chatham Islands were controlled by the Canterbury Education Board, but at the request of the island people and with the concurrence of the Board they are now administered directly by the Education Department. In the case of the schools in the Mandated Territory of Western Samoa and the Cook Islands the control is vested in the Departments of External Affairs and the Cook Islands respectively. The schools, however, are visited by Inspectors of the New Zealand Education Department, and they have advised that, in their opinion, it would be advantageous to the schools to have them directly controlled by the Education Department. In this opinion the Director of Education, Mr. T. B. Strong, concurs. The position is different in the case of the schools in Fiji, which is a British colony quite independent of the New Zealand Government, although the schools there also are worked to some extent under the supervision of the New Zealand Education Department in accordance with what is known as the " scheme of co-operation." The Committee therefore recommends— (29) That, in view of the successful organization and administration of the Native schools by the Education Department, the schools in the Mandated Territory of Western Samoa and in the Cook Islands should be placed directly under its control. CHAPTER XXVII.—TEACHERS' SUPERANNUATION. The teachers' superannuation scheme came into operation on the Ist January, 1906. The benefits were brought into line with those of the Public Service Superannuation Fund in 1908, there being, however, a few slight differences between them, due to the fact that teachers are employed by local authorities and not directly by the State. Payment by teachers varies, according to age of entry, from 5 per cent, of salary for those under 30 years of age to 10 per cent, of salary for those 50 years of age and over.
Native school visited.
High standard of work achieved.
Education in Western Samoa and Cook Islands.
Recommendation.
Particulars of Teachers' Superannuation Fund.
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Teachers may retire on superannuation if medically unfit, or at the end of forty years' service for men and thirty for women, and may retire or, at the discretion of the employing Board and without right of appeal, be retired at the age of 65 years for men and 55 years for women. The pension payable amounts to one-sixtieth part of the teacher's average salary for the three years immediately preceding retirement for each year of service lip to forty, but no pension exceeding £300 per annum is payable to any teacher who joined the fund subsequent to the 24th December, 1909. The total amount standing to the credit of the fund at the 31st January, 1929, was £1,171,990, an increase of £37,975 during the year, the net increase in the number of contributors compared with the previous year being 601. The revenue for the year was £275,889, including members' contributions and arrears (£136,061), interest (£67,828), and Government subsidy (£72,000). The total amount of Government subsidy paid to the fund to the 31st January, 1929, was £752,753. The expenditure of the fund for the year ended 31st January, 1929, was £237,913, of which retiring and other allowances represented £207,706, and refunds of contributions £26,781. On the 31st January, 1929, there were 9,281 contributors, the annual contributions amounting to £131,699. The retiring and other allowances were 1,444 in number, representing a charge of £210,154 per annum. The Actuary's report for the period ending 31st January, 1927, when the last triennial examination of the actuarial position of the fund was made, indicates that an annual subsidy of £173,000 should be paid by the Government for the year 1927-28 and onwards for the purpose of putting the fund in a sound financial position. The actual subsidy paid in 1927-28 was £71,228, and in 1928-29, £72,000, so that the deficit for these two years is considerably more than £200,000. The Government subsidy provided by Act is £43,000, increased by an annual vote of £25,000, and also by a sum to cover the increase in pension of £13 per annum to widows. The present unsoundness of the fund is mainly due to the fact that up to the present date the amount of retiring-allowance in respect of back service, for which no contributions have been received, is over £200,000 more than the total Government subsidy received—i.e., the fund has not only received no subsidy in respect of contributing service, but the Government has not met its liability in respect of back service. Several witnesses pointed out the unfairness of limiting the annual pension to not more than £300 per annum. This has also been referred to from time to time 1 by the Government Actuary in his reports on the fund. Mr. M. E. O'Shea, Registrar of Auckland University College, submitted ] evidence showing that, taking thirty-two professors on the ordinary expectation, ] and assuming their contributions to the fund to increase at the rate of 5 per cent, compound interest, the Superannuation Fund would gain almost £30,000 on these thirty-two professors through the arbitrary limitation of the pension to £300 per annum. He stated that the position was known to be adversely affecting the chances of recruiting able men for the chairs, since in other countries no such restrictions exist. Even in the case of twenty-seven lecturers at lower salaries the fund stands to gain £2,467 out of them. Sir Thomas Sidey, in his evidence before the Committee, also emphasized the J disadvantages of the position of the University professors in relation to the fund. ' Extract from Evidence or Hon. Sir Thomas Sidey, Chancellor, University of Otago. Professors are in quite a different position from school-teachers, who generally begin to contribute at an early age and consequently only pay 5 per cent, of their salaries into the fund. Their salaries also, in general, gradually increase, and therefore, since the retiring-allowance is based on average salary earned during the last three years of service, the retiring-allowance is usually commensurate with their contributions. A professor seldom joins the fund at less than thirty years of age, and often joins at a much greater age. His rate of contribution is, therefore, usually much higher than is the case
Present position of fund.
Actuarial report on condition of fund.
Responsibility of Government.
Limitation of annuity.
Position of University Professors.
Evidence of Chancellor of Otago University.
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with teachers in a primary or secondary school. Furthermore, he contributes on a much higher salary, and it should be noted that in the case of a professor the salary is much more uniform than in the case of a teacher. The present objection to the superannuation scheme, however, is that despite the higher rate of contribution of a professor, and despite the higher salary upon which he contributes, his retiringallowance is limited to £300 per annum. Mr. J. G. Poison, President of the New Zealand Educational Institute, in his evidence before your Committee communicated resolutions carried at the 1929 Conference of the Institute in relation to superannuation matters, as follows : — Resolutions submitted by the New Zealand Educational Institute. That the executive be urged to use every possible endeavour to obtain justice for those teachers who are at a disadvantage as regards superannuation, especially («) those who have not superannuation at all, (b) those whose broken service prevents some back service being counted. That those teachers who, through lack of correct information, were unable to join the Superannuation Fund upon entering the profession be permitted to join upon payment of arrears with compound interest. Mr. Poison added that the Institute, while desiring opportunity for all teachers to receive recognition of all years of service, especially pleaded for those pupilteachers and probationers whose loss of service was due in most cases to ignorance or misleading information. Their case had been before Parliament by way of petition on two occasions, but the Institute had no hesitation in urging their claims again as being thoroughly worthy. Mr. Strong, in his evidence, expressed the opinion that the worst blot on the superannuation system was the wholly inadequate allowance paid to the widow of an annuitant —namely, £31 per annum. The Committee decided that the facts as stated above should be incorporated in the report and brought under the notice of the Government. With regard to the position of the University professors, it is of opinion that, instead of altering the amount of the maximum superannuation allowance (£3OO per annum), adjustment should be made in their case in the rate of contribution. It therefore recommends— (30) That, having regard to the superannuation rights obtaining in the Public Service, the maximum allowance payable should be £300, and that the contributions to the fund be fixed upon an actuarial basis. CHAPTER XXVIII.—CONTACT WITH EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION ABROAD. Speaking on behalf of the Secondary Schools' Association, the president, Mr. W. A. Armour, stated that time and again his association had carried resolutions calling upon Ministers of Education to send the Director of Education abroad to obtain a first-hand knowledge of the educational systems of Britain, Europe, and America. Extract from the Evidence of Mr. W. A. Armour, M.A., M.Sc., President of the Secondary Schools' Association. We wish to reiterate our conviction before this Committee. We wish also to state that, besides the Director, others who have attained to important positions in the educational system of New Zealand should from time to time be sent abroad to investigate developments in education and on their return be given opportunity to communicate the results of their investigations to their fellowteachers. This, we feel sure, would be one of the soundest investments that this country could make. Professor Hight, Rector of Canterbury University College, who had himself attended the Imperial P]ducation Conference in 1927, was most emphatic in expressing his opinion that it was highly undesirable for New Zealand to maintain an attitude of aloofness and isolation, and to refrain from obtaining personal and first-hand acquaintance with the educational systems and problems of other countries.
Evidence of President of New Zealand Educational Institute.
Widows' allowance.
Recommendation.
Evidence of President of Secondary Schools Association.
Evidence of Rector of Canterbury College.
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Extract from Evidence of Dr. James Might. Rector, Canterbury Colleue. Contact with Systems abroad. (i) A people's progress depends largely upon its receptivity of new ideas, from whatever quarter they come, and its frank adoption of any application of these which their judgment approves. The power of judgment itself grows with experience of such process of assimilation of what is thought to be appropriate and rejection of what is unfit. (ii) While this is necessary in every land, if the best conditions of life are to be realized, the needs of different peoples in this respect vary in degree because of certain differences in their general social situation. New Zealand should take especial care to guard against stagnation or eccentricities of thought and policy —(i) because of our remote situation from the centres of culture and civilization militating against the free communication and discussion of ideas by frequent personal contact of our leaders with those abroad such as many other peoples enjoy, and (ii) because of the homogeneous make-up of our population, both racial and economic, which militates against that constant ferment of new ideas and intense struggle amongst them for survival and adoption in policy which mark a people of more varied composition than we are. This birth and clash of ideas, this intellectual struggle for existence, is an essential condition in a nation if it is to endure and flourish, and education is an essential condition for this vivid intellectual life. In the sphere of education, then, we shall be guarding against stagnation or against direction along wrong lines of development, and at the same time doing most vital service in the work of nation-building, if we make it a fundamental principle that those in charge of our education policy (in all branches) should be sent abroad at regular intervals free to investigate policies and ideas abroad. There can be few considerations regarding our education system that, in my opinion, yield in importance to this. As indicated at the beginning of this section, this question is of far-reaching importance in our national life, extending far beyond the details of educational administration. There are few of our thoughtful students or observers who go abroad who do not deplore a certain parochialism, self-satisfaction, and complacent conservatism in the outlook of the average New-Zealander. He is too self-centred, is lacking in tolerance or in due appreciation of other points of view than his own. The most promising corrective is education ; but education must itself be first permeated with the spirit that will develop in the citizen a broad vision and a wider understanding, and an active desire and effective will to contribute to the social progress of the world in general. Thus only we get that stimulus to the intellect and moral sense without which our physical stock and environment, fine as they are, will avail but little to make us count for much in the ultimate scheme of things. If we wish to guard against stagnation, we should see that those in charge of our education system should be sent abroad at regular intervals free to investigate policies and ideas abroad. I do not wish to reflect on any particular Government, but I do think it was a derogation from the reputation of New Zealand that the Director of Education was not sent by the Government of New Zealand to represent the Dominion at the last Imperial Education Conference. From personal experience I can vouch for the immense value of such a Conference, and, after all, that Conference — great as it was, and greater as the succeeding Conferences will be —is only one incident in tour that one who goes to the other end of the world must make. When the Director of Education and other representatives from New Zealand —and I think other representatives should go —go to the next Conference, in 1931, they should be given leave extensive enough to enable them to make an investigation which would be really worth while into the education system of the Old Country, because Britain is very progressive in educational matters. In many ways she leads the van. Visits on the part of our officers are necessary ; the alternative I do not like to contemplate. The Directors of Education of New South Wales and Victoria were present at the Conference, and I think the cost was £1,000 in each case. But what is an expenditure of £1,000 when the results of expending £4,000,000 are at stake ? £1,000 every four years, what is it ? A review of the facts bearing on the case must lead to the admission that Professor Hight's fears of stagnation arising from our continued isolation are not without some justification. The Education Department has not yet been represented at the Imperial Education Conference, and is the only self-governing portion of the Empire so circumstanced. It is twenty-two years since an officer of the Department was sent to Europe and America to investigate educational problems in the older countries of the world. Mr. Hogben's visit abroad in 1907 was productive of very much benefit to this country, but since that year neither the Director nor any other departmental officer has been sent either to Europe or to America. So far as Australia is concerned, the position is considerably more satisfactory. Messrs. Strong, Bird, and Garrard attended the Conference of Inspectors of Schools in 1924, 1926, and 1928 respectively, and Mr. Caughley and Mr. Strong represented New Zealand at a Conference of Directors in 1927 and 1930 respectively Reporting upon the proceedings of the Imperial Education Conference, 1927, with reference to the matters of co-operation between the Education Departments of the Empire and the temporary interchange of teachers, Dr. Hight conveyed to
Necessity for contact with education overseas.
Representation of New Zealand at Imperial Education Conference.
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the New Zealand Government the recommendations of the Conference thereon as follows : — Extract prom the Report op Dr. James Hight upon the Proceedings op the Imperial Education Conperence, 1927. CO-OPERATION BETWEEN EDUCATION DEPARTMENTS IN THE EMPIRE. It is hoped that this important matter will be further extended and systematized by the adoption of the recommendations of a committee, whose report, adopted by the Conference, contains the following : — " We were asked to consider the question of co-operation, with special reference to statistics and information. " 1. We have considered carefully the memorandum on fundamental statistics which has been laid before the Conference, and we recommend the adoption of the form suggested in it—with a few slight modifications —for general use. In making this recommendation we wish to call special attention to the importance emphasized in the notes appended to the form, of precise definitions of the terms used. "We recommend that the Conference should ask the Board of Education for England and Wales to circulate the form, as modified, to all the Education Departments, with the request that each of them will endeavour to complete it for the year 1928, and return it to the Board with a view to the presentation of a complete set of returns to the next meeting of the Conference. "We suggest, further, that the returns of each Department should be accompanied by a diagram showing the relations to each other of the different types of educational institutions within its system. " 2. We agree with what we understand was the conclusion of the Conference of 1923 with regard to the formation of an Imperial Bureau of Education—namely, that at present the more important need is for the formation of bureaux for each of the Dominions, India, and other main regional divisions of the Empire ; and we are glad to note the progress which is being made in this direction. " 3. We recommend that the existing arrangements for the interchange of reports and other official documents should be continued, and that they should be extended to include (a) educational legislation (the desirability of this has been specially urged), and (b) available information relating to books, educational films, school equipment, &c. In regard to the second category, it is perhaps hardly necessary to add that lists of items will be of little use unless they also include sufficient descriptions of each item. "We further suggest that Departments might inform each other periodically by direct communication of the subjects on which they are specially desirous of obtaining information. This would help to organize the experience of the different parts of the Empire and to make it more readily available for mutual assistance. The working of this arrangement would throw light on the desirability and practicability of closer co-operation in the investigation of educational problems, and on the question of the desirability of an Empire Educational Bulletin. " 4. With regard to the exchange of Inspectors, we realize the great difficulties, by no means merely financial, in the way of effecting any considerable number. But the usefulness of such exchanges is not in dispute, and we hope that those which have already taken place between England and Wales on one hand and New Zealand and Ontario on the other will be followed by others. An Inspector is much more than a mere assessor of school-work ; he is an inspiring force, and any increase in his knowledge and experience of the practice of other educational systems may have practical results of the highest value." Temporary Interchange of Teachers. In this respect I drew attention to two points—the fact that few men teachers shared in the advantages of exchange, and, secondly, that in many cases the teacher on exchange does not get that close acquaintance with the general aspects of educational policy and methods in the country he visits which should constitute one of the main objects of the exchange. The report of the Committee on Interchange submitted a valuable series of suggestions. These have been adopted by the Conference, and in regard to paragraph 7 of the report, which is set out below, the consultation suggested with the Directors of Education now in London is already proceeding. The report is as follows :— "1. In accordance with their instructions, the Committee have considered the present scheme of interchange of teachers between different parts of the Empire. They have read the chapter dealing with this subject in the annual report of the Board of Education for the school year 1925-26, in which the origin and history of the scheme, its advantages, and some of the difficulties connected with it are discussed. They have also had before them a letter from the Empire Marketing Board containing an important proposal to which special reference will be made in this report, and a memorandum submitted to the Conference by the League of the Empire. " 2. In addition, the Committee have heard oral evidence from representatives of the local authorities and of teachers' associations, and from Mrs. Ord Marshall, the honorary secretary of the League of the Empire ; and they have further had the advantage of a
Extract from Report of Dr. James Hight.
Co-operation between Education Departments of the Empire.
Interchange of teachers.
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discussion with Major Walter Elliot, M.P., Under-Secretary of State for Scotland and member of the Empire Marketing Board. " 3. Subject to what is stated below, the Committee feel able to report that the present scheme is working satisfactorily, and they do not desire to recommend any substantial modification in the basis of the present system. The measures which have been taken to give effect to the recommendations of the Imperial Education Conference of 1923 have gone far to remove the more serious difficulties with which the scheme was previously confronted, and the Committee are glad to observe that the number of interchanges is now increasing. " 4. The attention of the Committee has been drawn to a few minor difficulties which appear to be capable of adjustment:— (a) In some parts of Great Britain, and possibly in some of the Dominions, there appears to be a need for greater publicity. The Committee recommend that the attention of education authorities should be drawn to this point. (b) Delay in making arrangements for the interchange of particular teachers. This might be avoided by fixing, and making widely known, regular times at which applications from teachers should be received and at which interchanges could be effected. (c) Difficulties occasionally arise owing to the different dates on which the school terms begin. In some cases this results in an interval before the exchange teacher can be effectively employed, and in other cases the term has begun before the exchange teacher arrives. The Committee suggest that the various Education Departments concerned should endeavour to adjust the dates of exchanges in such a way as to minimize this particular difficulty. In cases in which some gap is inevitable, the Committee hope that the education authorities concerned will be prepared to faoe the small loss involved. (d) In some cases exchange teachers fail to obtain the full advantage of the scheme through lack of sufficient variety of experience. The Committee recommend that education authorities should be invited to afford the exchange teacher adequate facilities for study of the various types of school and for such out-of-school activities as are calculated to give the teacher some knowledge of the general educational, social, and economic life of the community. The Committee would also call attention to the importance of some preliminary study on the part of the teacher of the history, geography, and conditions of that part of the Empire to which he is to go. " 5. The more serious defect of the present scheme is that in practice it is, with rare exceptions, limited to the interchange of women teachers in elementary schools. The Committee have carefully considered the causes of this restriction and its possible remedies. Two principal suggestions have been made : — (i) That financial assistance might be provided towards the cost of the travellingexpenses ; and (ii) That travelling scholarships or bursarships might be awarded to a certain number of selected teachers. " In examining these suggestions the Committee have, of course, considered the proposals laid before the Conference by the Empire Marketing Board, and, although the particular scheme described in the memorandum accompanying the letter from that Board is framed on the basis of grants in aid of travelling-expenses, it is understood that the Board would be ready to consider an alternative proposal if it were consistent with the general objects which the Board have in view. " 6. The relative advantages and disadvantages of the two schemes may be summarized as follows : — A scheme of grants in aid of travelling-expenses — (a) Might be expected to lead to an increase in the total number of exchanges ; (b) Could be so framed as to lead to an increase in the number of men teachers who would interchange ; (c) Could be so framed as to facilitate interchange between more distant parts of the Empire. " On the other hand, if assistance were provided towards the travelling - expenses of a limited number of teachers, there would be a risk of a diminution in the number of teachers prepared to participate in an unassisted scheme ; and an assisted scheme might possibly attract a different and less enthusiastic type of teacher than the present system. Further, grants in aid of travelling-expenses would not remove the obstacles which at present stand in the way of the interchange of specialized teachers in secondary and technical schools. " The following advantages may be claimed for the alternative proposal: — (i) Teachers in secondary and technical schools, training-college lecturers, and adult-education tutors would have an opportunity of studying educational and social conditions in other parts of the Empire, an opportunity which they could hardly have under a rigid system of interchange, evsn if grants were made in aid of their travelling-expenses, owing to the difficulty of finding teachers with corresponding qualifications and teaching functions in schools and other educational institutions where teaching is necessarily specialized. (ii) This proposal would facilitate the movements of teachers between parts of the Empire (e.g., between Great Britain and India) where interchange in the usually accepted sense of the term would be impracticable.
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(iii) The scheme could be so framed as to ensure the selection of teachers of high quality who would be true missionaries of Empire. " Against this alternative scheme it may urged that it would be costly to operate, and that accordingly only a comparatively small number of teachers would be able to take advantage of it. " 7. The Committee feel that there is room for both these proposals, and they recommend the Conference to pass a resolution, in general terms, welcoming the offer of the Empire Marketing Board to co-operate in facilitating the movements of teachers between different parts of the Empire, and requesting the Home Education Departments to work out, in conjunction with the Empire Marketing Board, the details of a scheme embracing both proposals, to be subsequently submitted for the consideration of the various Governments of the Empire. If the Conference should see fit to adopt this resolution, it would be highly desirable that- work upon the details of the scheme should begin at once, while the representatives of so many Education Departments of overseas Governments are still in this country. " 8. The Committee have given most sympathetic consideration to a suggestion that a hostel should be provided for the accommodation of overseas teachers in London. Such a hostel would not merely serve as a place where overseas teachers could find suitable board and lodging, but would also be a community centre at which information, opinions, and experiences of teachers from all parts of the Empire could be exchanged. While the Committee are unable to recommend the use of public funds for this purpose, they trust that voluntary assistance may be forthcoming which will enable such a hostel to be provided." This Committee is fully alive to tlie great importance of the recommendations thus conveyed and endorsed by Dr. Hight. It is particularly impressed with the necessity not only of sending administrators and teachers abroad, but also of establishing and maintaining in the Dominion some system of continued contact with educational developments overseas. To this end it has recommended the appointment of a liaison educational research officer, who should be entirely free from any duties of an administrative character in order to devote his full time to this particular work. By sending our principal educational administrators abroad, extending and facilitating the system of interchange of Inspectors and teachers, especially amongst men teachers and in the post-primary grades, and appointing a permanent officer to maintain constant contact with overseas Educational Research Institutes and other similar organizations, the Committee believes that the disadvantage of our geographical isolation may be largely overcome. It is, indeed, clear that many of the existing difficulties which it has been the Committee's task to investigate might have been obviated earlier had such means of continued contact with educational developments overseas been in operation ; and the Committee heartily endorses the comment of Mr. W. A. Armour in this connection, that expenditure upon this object " would be one of the soundest investments that this country could make." The Committee therefore recommends— (31) (a) That the Dominion should be represented at each Imperial Education Conference by the Director or Assistant Director of Education, or, in the event of their not being able to attend, by some other senior officer of the Department sent for that purpose. (b) That every effort should be made to facilitate and extend the interchange of teachers, Inspectors, and administrators with overseas countries, and particularly with Great Britain and the sister Dominions. (c) That a liaison educational research officer be appointed to the Department of Education, who shall be directly responsible to the Minister for the organization and maintenance of direct contact with overseas education research institutes, schools of education, and other educational organizations of a like nature ; and for the collection of data regarding educational research work both in the Dominion and overseas for the information of the Minister, to whom he shall present reports from time to time as the Minister may require.
Need for Educational Research Officer to be appointed.
Recommendations.
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CHAPTER XXIX.—COUNCIL OF EDUCATION. The Council of Education was set up under the Education Act, 1914. It is an advisory body, and meets annually, its duty being to report to the Minister—(a) Upon methods or developments in national education which in its opinion it is desirable to introduce into New Zealand: (b) Upon any matters concerning the provision of facilities for education in New Zealand or in any district thereof, and upon the co-ordi-nation of the work carried on by the various bodies controlling education : (c) Upon any other matters in connection with education referred to it by the Minister. The only power it enjoys of an administrative character is its right to approve the establishment and disestablishment of district high schools before action can be taken in either direction. In view of the Committee's recommendations for the complete reorganization of the education system, including those providing for the establishment of a Secondary Schools Board of Studies and a Faculty of Technical Education, the Committee is of opinion that the time has come for a review of the question of the continuance of the Council. It therefore recommends accordingly— (32) That, in view of the Committee's recommendations for the establishment of a Secondary Schools Board of Studies and a Faculty of Technical Education, the question of the continuance of the Council of Education should be reviewed. CHAPTER XXX.—THE CHANGE-OVER. The Committee gave earnest consideration to the steps to be taken to bring the new system into immediate operation. It believes that no time should be lost by the Dominion in the endeavour to resume that place in the vanguard of the educational progress which its first adoption of the principle of free secondary education for all in 1903 won for it. The Committee recognizes at the same time that to attempt to embark at once upon the full scheme of reorganization envisaged in the report would involve the Government in the immediate expenditure of large sums of money for the erection and equipment of separate intermediate schools in all the main centres of population. The course adopted by the authorities in Brighton, England, as described by Sir James Parr fortunately shows that the change-over to the new system can be inaugurated without such expenditure. The Committee therefore proposes that a commencement should be made, as at Brighton, by the immediate readjustment of existing buildings, staffs, and pupils in accordance with the principles governing the new movement, and the subsequent gradual establishment of separate intermediate schools in accordance with the normal rate for the erection of new buildings, which should be, as far as is possible, of a type suitable for this purpose. To begin with the most remote schools, there will be no difficulty with regard to the linking-up of these with the Wellington Correspondence School, and the issue to the pupils of Forms I to 111 of assignments based upon the new organization, which they will work by themselves at school, with such occasional assistance as the teacher, without neglecting the elementary pupils, will be able to give. By the steady extension of the principle of consolidation as at Piopio, Oxford, and elsewhere, to which as a matter of general policy the Department is already committed, apart from the special recommendations of this Committee, the needs of the next group will be met in accordance with the new principle. The district high schools, with their manual arts, domestic science, agricultural, and commercial courses, all of which are already in operation, are capable of ready adaptation to the new order of things. In towns like Whangarei, Blenheim, and Rotorua, in which only one post-primary school, and that of a composite type, exists, at first partial and later full transference can be effected, along the lines followed at Rongotai College, within the limits of the accommodation available ; and any new
I Duties of Council of Education. 5
L b Recommendation. J I a
r Need for immediate l introduction of 1 new system. T CX 1
e i i i ; Readjustment of buildings, staffs, and 3 pupils to be made.
3 1 The change-over in rural districts.
T 1 7 s fc 1 ) L Proposals for . country towns. b T
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buildings that would be required in the normal order of things can be constructed with a view to the complete organization of the new system. In towns where separate high and technical schools exist mutual transference will have to be made, the technical school taking the intermediate pupils, and the accommodation thus set free at the secondary school being occupied by a compensating transference of senior pupils from the technical day school, particularly those enrolled in general, commercial, and home-science classes which can readily be undertaken at the high schools. In the large urban centres such a course can also be followed, with, in addition, the readjustment of a group of elementary schools, as was done when the Kowhai Junior High School was established, surrounding a centrally situated school. It is in the growing cities that opportunities for the establishment of the separate intermediate school will first present themselves, on account of the normal requirements for the rebuilding of old schools and the provision of new ones to meet the rapid growth of population that is taking place. The above sketch is, of course, not intended as a detailed scheme. To prepare such is the function of the officers of the Education Department, not of the Committee. What is intended to be shown is that in New Zealand, as in England, the change-over should be made at once, fully wherever the facilities, subject to necessary adjustments, are available, and partially where that only is immediately possible, and with a view to fuller developments as soon as is practicable. Thereis no occasion whatever for further delay ; and if the normal building rate is proceeded with —and the Committee is pleased to note that this is being done, notwithstanding the financial stringency—the full scheme can within a reasonable period be brought into operation as recommended in the report. The Committee quite recognizes that some additional building expenditure may be necessary in order to provide for the new fourteen-year-old pupils whose attendance at school will become compulsory under the new system. It is a striking testimony to the need for this reform that public opinion has already advanced so far ahead of the State in this matter ; for of 27,000 children who will come under the operation of the new compulsory clause, no fewer than 18,000, or two-thirds of the whole, are already voluntarily in attendance at the post-primary schools. It will be necessary, therefore, to find accommodation and staffing for an additional 9,000 only. A considerable number of these, in the opinion of the Committee, it will be possible to provide for by the consolidation of the large number of Fifth and Sixth Forms in district high, technical high, and high schools, in which the enrolment is unduly small. Reference has been made in an earlier chapter to the fact that in thirty-four of the forty-four secondary schools there are Sixth Forms with an enrolment of fifteen pupils or under. In the four high schools at Napier, Hastings, and Dannevirke, for example, there are four Sixth Forms which have an aggregate number of thirty-six pupils only—an average of nine each. It is quite clear to the Committee that it is a wasteful method of organization to provide four class-rooms, each capable of accommodating probably thirty scholars, and separate staffing of a highly specialized a,nd highly salaried character, with separate scientific equipment sufficient for University Entrance Scholarship standard, for an aggregate of thirty-six pupils. It would be very much less expensive and more efficient to consolidate these classes by granting conveyance or hostel allowances to the pupils of the smaller classes, and so utilizing accommodation and staffing in the consolidated schools to their full capacity, and making available the remainder to meet the new demands which the increased school population will make upon the system. Up to this point, however, the suggestions outlined have been based upon the continuance of the existing system of administration, which the Committee's recommendations, if adopted, will replace with one infinitely more harmonious, more efficient, and considerably less expensive. The proportion of the total Education vote which will be saved from administrative for genuinelv educational © J purposes will depend upon the extent to which the reforms recommended are put into effect; but the Committee feels assured that these will be fully adequate to cover the additional cost of the immediate provisional introduction of the new system here recommended. In this connection the Committee desires to point out that several of the reforms which it has advocated have been already initiated and accepted as a matter of Government policy—such, for example, as the appointment of women Inspectors, the consolidation of small schools in the country,
Readjustment in urban centres.
Full scheme to be introduced later.
Extra pupils to be provided for.
Consolidation proposed.
Reforms to which the State is already committed.
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and of the upper standards in the larger centres. The important question of the reduction of the size of classes is one of these and reference has been made in an earlier chapter to the steps which have already been taken in the present year in this direction. The expenditure necessary for reforms of this character must, of course, be considered apart from that which may ultimately be required in order to put the Committee's full programme of reorganization into effect. The reduction of the size of classes is so important a matter that the Committee is of opinion that it should be dealt with entirely apart from the rest of the recommendations made. Tn principle the Committee is strongly of opinion that the old theory that primary school teachers should be expected to teach twice as many pupils in one class as secondary teachers, should be frankly abandoned for one of complete equality in this respect. There are, indeed, many arguments that might be used in support of the reverse principle—viz., that the secondary teacher should be able to manage larger classes than the primary teacher; but the Committee does not wish to suggest any such discrimination. It merely lays down the same standard for both, and in doing so it believes it is in accord with the best modern educational opinion. It quite frankly recognizes that the reduction of the size of classes in the primary schools does mean added expense ; but it considers that this reform should take precedence before all others, or, if that is not possible, that at least it should proceed pari passu with the other reforms herein recommended. It has therefore proposed the immediate preparation of a definite scheme providing for the systematic reduction of the size of classes, year by year, so as to get the maximum number down to thirty-five at least within a period of five years. The Committee has had prepared a conspectus in which is set out in a form easy to comprehend the general effect of the major recommendations made in this report. When this is compared with that which appeared in the annual report of the Minister of Education in 1915, following upon the last great administrative reorganization of the system—that effected by the Education Act, 1914 —the magnitude of the advance and the democratic character of the changes now proposed stand out in the most striking contrast. The Committee believes that the ideals which are incorporated in this conspectus are such as will commend themselves to the great body of the thinking public of this country. No reforms have ever been accomplished without a struggle, and the Committee does not expect its recommendations to meet with universal approbation. What it does wish to make clear, however, is this : that its individual recommendations are integral parts of a complete scheme of educational reorganization. They cannot be put into effect piecemeal. It will be quite impossible even to put into operation the provisional scheme of change-over to the new educational system, which has the endorsement of educationists throughout the Dominion and the world over, unless provision is first made for at least such a measure of administrative unification of control as will enable the necessary readjustment of school buildings, pupils, and staffs to be made. Such a reorganization is quite impossible so long as the various types of schools are controlled, and the teachers appointed, by so many separate authorities. Neither is there any possible hope of effecting such essential reforms as the reduction of the size of classes, the raising of the compulsory school age, the increase in the Committees' capitation, or the adjustment of the teachers' salaries unless, first of all, steps are taken to reduce drastically the altogether disproportionate amount of money which the existing system consumes in administration. These basic facts the Committee, therefore, desires to state plainly, and to emphasize, at the conclusion of its arduous but extremely interesting task, confident that the good sense of the public, and particularly of the parents of the children, will justify and approve the conclusions at which it has unanimously arrived. The Committee therefore recommends— (33) (a) That in order to effect an immediate change-over to the principle of compulsory intermediate education the three intermediate grades (Forms I, 11, and III) be provisionally transferred to whichever school in any centre (district high, technical, or secondary) is at present best equipped to provide parallel exploratory courses of the desired character.
Reduction of size of classes of vital importance.
Conspectus of reorganized system prepared.
Complete scheme ol reorganization proposed.
All reforms conditional on administrative reorganization.
Recommendations.
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(b) That notwithstanding the present financial stringency the national school building programme be proceeded with at the normal rate, having in mind the settled policy of the State with regard to the steady reduction of the size of classes ; and that all new buildings be of such type as to enable the permanent scheme of intermediate education recommended in Chapter ¥ to be brought into full operation as soon as possible. (c) That in order to enable the nine thousand additional fourteen-year-old pupils to be accommodated with a minimum of additional building expenditure, all available accommodation in existing school buildings be used to the full by making such provisional class transferences as may be necessary in connection with the change-over; and by the immediate consolidation of small classes, where practicable, in the post-primary schools, (34) That a definite scheme should be worked out providing for the systematic reduction of the size of classes ; and that such scheme should aim at reducing the number in each class to a maximum of thirty-five within five years. Thanks. The courtesy extended to the Committee by the civic authorities of the centres visited, and the ready manner in which Education Boards and also certain local bodies placed at its disposal their offices to facilitate the deliberations of the Committee, was much appreciated. It is felt that due acknowledgment of such actions should be made in this final chapter. The Committee was impressed by the wide knowledge and keen enthusiasm displayed by the many witnesses who of their own volition readily tendered evidence, before it, and expresses its deep sense of the important part such men and women play in our educational system.' It also desires to thank the officers of the Education Department for their promptness in furnishing information necessary to the due carrying-out of the investigation enjoined by the Order of Reference. In conclusion, the members of the Committee desire to place on record their full appreciation of the able manner in which Mr. W. A. Bodkin, as Chairman of the Committee, conducted its affairs. To Mr. W. I. Deavoll, Private Secretary to the Hon. the Minister of Education, we extend our sincere thanks for the excellent manner in which he carried out his duties as Secretary to the Committee and for the very complete arrangements he made on our behalf. Mr. J. Barron, Hansard Reporter, in his capacity as stenographer to the Committee, had a very arduous task, and his excellent reports materially assisted the members of the Committee in their final deliberations. Finally the Committee desires to acknowledge the courtesy and efficiency with which the Government Printer, Mr. W. A. G. Skinner, the Superintendent, Mr. G. Loney, and his Staff have printed the Report. Lsth August, 1930. W. A. Bodkin (Chairman). Harry Atmore (Minister of Education). Geo. C. Black. Clyde Carr. Peter Fraser. Henry Holland. T. W. McDonald, A. J. Murdoch. Geo, R. Sykes. J. A. Young.
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CONSPECTUS OF REORGANIZED STATE EDUCATION SYSTEM.
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SUMMARY OF RESOLUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS. (1) That the termination of the primary-school course be at 11 plus or after passing Standard IV. (2) That the age to which the education of a child is required by law be raised from 14 to 15 years, with provision for exemption in cases of hardship. (3) That intermediate classes should form part of the education system, and that the types of schools or classes as suggested by Mr. Garrard be recommended to the Government as a basis. (4) The Committee therefore recommends further consolidation of schools and classes where practicable, so as to ensure an adequate education, particularly for children in rural districts. (5) That this Committee is of opinion that the scholarship system is no longer necessary as a means of providing free education beyond the primary stage, and recommends that the funds now applied to the provision of National and University Entrance Scholarships be utilized for the purpose of providing maintenance bursaries to assist deserving pupils to continue their education to the higher stages, the awards to be based not upon competitive external examinations, but upon consideration of individual cases recommended by the Senior Inspector or Superintendent of each education district. (6) That, in view of the great importance to the Dominion of our primary industries, the curricula of all our schools must include adequate practical instruction in agriculture and allied subjects. (7) That this Committee is of the opinion that unification of control of the existing primary, secondary, and technical education in New Zealand is desirable. (8) That the existing post-primary school Boards be continued as School Councils for their respective schools, except that where a single Board has controlled more than one school a separate School Council shall be set up for each school. (9) That the present divisions of the Inspectorate be abolished, and a single Inspectorate be organized consisting of specialist Inspectors, the inspectorial staff within each Board district to inspect all grades and types of schools within the District, and to include one woman Inspector. (10) Thai; the powers and duties of the national Department under the proposed scheme of reorganization shall include the control of— (i) Administrative— (a) Native schools : (b) Child Welfare Branch : (c) Distribution of capitation allowances, special grants, and subsidies : (d) Payment of teachers : (e) Teachers' Superannuation Fund : (/) Power to make regulations (1) requiring Boards to share services and officers where, in Minister's opinion such a course is desirable in the interests of efficiency or economy, and (2) to ensure that earmarked grants are applied to authorized purposes only : (</) Appointment of nominated members of Boards. (ii) Professional — (h) Syllabus of instruction : (i) School certificates : (j) Inspection of schools : (k) Classification of teachers : (I) Appointment of teachers. (11) That the allowances paid to School Committees should be increased and adjusted so as to provide adequate funds to meet essential requirements, and that subsidies on moneys raised locally for school purposes should be on a generous basis. 10*
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(12) (a) That there should be only one Teachers' Register for the whole teaching service. (b) That a new salary scale be prepared covering the whole Education Service, with a view to the elimination of anomalies at present existing as between the primaxy, secondary, and technical services, and between men and women teachers ; and that this scale should be based upon the principle of the payment of the teacher instead of the payment of the position, together with recognition of family responsibilities. (c) That the system of numerical grading hitherto in use in the primary service be abolished in favour of classification by Inspectors in broad groups based upon teaching efficiency. (id) That the appointment of teachers should be entrusted to a National Appointments Committee constituted in a manner similar to the present Teachers' Grading Appeal Board, the system of appointment to include provision for — (i) Preparation of Teachers' Classified Roll: (ii) Preparation of an annual Promotion List within each classified group, based upon Inspector's reports, copies of which should be supplied to the teachers : (iii) Appointment by National Committee, which shall also have power to transfer, reasonable removal expenses to be paid in cases of compulsory transfer : (iv) All appointments to be made in the same month of the year, with consequential appointments in the month following ; vacancies then remaining to be filled by transfer, and sufficient permanent relieving staff to be maintained to fill casual vacancies until next period of appointment: (v) Right of appeal to Teachers' Court of Appeal against (a) noninclusion in the Promotion List; (b) suspension, dismissal, reduction of salary, non-appointment, or transfer to a lower paid appointment. (13) That the New Zealand University be disestablished, and that its accumulated funds and annual revenue from State sources be made available for the improvement of libraries and staffing conditions at the University colleges in accordance with the scheme set out below (а) That the existing University colleges, agricultural colleges, research institutions, and teachers' training colleges be consolidated within each Island to form two self-contained universities. (б) That these universities be universities of limited charter with provision for reciprocity in recognition of degrees and diplomas and that they be empowered to arrange for joint examinations as may be found desirable. (c) That the governing body of each University be composed of representatives elected by each of the constituent institutions; and that each institution should contribute a proportionate share of the expenses incurred by such governing body. (d) That in order to ensure the fullest co-ordination between research and teaching institutions within each University the Departments of Education and of Scientific and Industrial Research be placed under the same Ministerial control. (e) (i) That of the accumulated funds of the New Zealand University the sum of £20,000 be devoted to the immediate equipment of the University college libraries, and the remainder set apart as a permanent endowment for their maintenance. (ii) That the annual savings effected by the abolition of the present New Zealand University examinations and the reorganization of the bursary system as hereinafter provided for, be devoted to improving the staffing of the University colleges, particularly in the arts and science departments.
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(iii) endowment known as the Opakn Reserve be resumed as a national endowment for the benefit of the University of Northern New Zealand ; and that the revenue therefrom be devoted to the purposes set out in subclause above. (iv) That investigation be made into the value of all public educational endowments in New Zealand in order to ascertain whether greater benefit can be derived from them, and that the whole of the endowments be dealt with on a national basis. (/') That a uniform scale of staffing and salaries be adopted for all institutions comprised within the two Universities, and that all salaries of the teaching staffs be paid by the Government direct. (g) That as an initial basis of reorganization the Universities of Northern and Southern New Zealand be empowered to conduct courses and grant degrees in those subjects and schools for which their work is at present approved by the New Zealand University. (h) That provisions similar to those contained in the present New Zealand University Act be made for the purpose of safeguarding the national interests with respect to the establishment of new schools or the expansion of existing schools within University colleges. (i) With respect to the standard and nature of University entrance and degree examinations, — (i) That if and in so far as these are inferior to the standards of the best British universities they should as soon as possible be brought into line therewith. (ii) That as far as is practicable the examination system be an internal one, in which the class records of the candidates should be regarded as of equal weight with the results of any formal examinations held ; and that all examinations, as far as is possible, should accordingly be conducted by New Zealand examiners. (iii) That, in accordance with the essential function of the universities as teaching and research, rather than degree-granting, institutions, every encouragement be offered, as recommended hereinafter, to enable matriculated students to attend full-time at the Universitity colleges ; and that in order to prevent hardship close individual consideration be given to every application for exemption from such attendance, each case to be decided strictly upon its merits. (iv) That, in order to encourage research work on the part of students, conditions should be attached to all University scholarships requiring the holders to undertake approved research work and to present a report thereon. (14) (a) That the training colleges in the four centres be handed over to the control of the University college authorities, together with their buildings, equipment, and staffs ; and that the general lecturers so handed over be utilized to reduce the size of classes in the University arts and science departments. (.b) That a professional lecturing staff of the training colleges be consolidated with that of the University Schools of Education and Psychological Clinics to form a strong School of Education in each centre ; and that provision be made for educational research work to be undertaken in conjunction therewith. (c) That University degrees in education be established for teachers and administrators, with endorsement as to the special fields for which qualifications are obtained.
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(d) That within the University of Northern New Zealand the Auckland University College should undertake the training of sub-primary and primary teachers ; and that the Victoria University College and Massey Agricultural College should undertake the training of post-primary and agricultural teachers ; and that within the University of Southern "New Zealand the Otago University should undertake the training of sub-primary and primary teachers ; and the Canterbury College and Canterbury Agricultural College the training of post-primary and agricultural teachers. (e) That for the immediate control of each training college, the direction of the courses of training, and the examination and certification of trainees, a Faculty of Education should be set up by each University college, to consist of representatives of the University college, the Education Department, and the New Zealand Federation of Teachers, which should be responsible for the determination of entrance qualifications, the preparation of syllabuses of studies, the arrangement of teaching practice, and the granting of certificates, these to be awarded upon the internal examination system at present in operation .in the training colleges. if) That arrangements be made in conjunction with the Education Department and District Education Boards for adequate teaching practice to be obtained in the various types of schools within each of the four centres ; and that for this purpose the Minister of Education, upon the recommendation of the Faculty of Education in any centre, should have power, if necessary, to make regulations requiring any school or schools to be made available for the purposes of affording teaching practice for students in training, and governing the conditions under which such training shall be carried out in the schools. (15) (a) That, subject to the changes in administration recommended in Section 2 of this report, the existing Boards of Governors of the technical colleges be continued as Technical College Councils, together with their associated Apprenticeship and other committees. (b) That every effort be made to develop the technical colleges as institutions for higher technical education for adults and adolescents in employment, and for the training of apprentices. (c) That the Schools of Mines at present under the control of the Department of Mines should be transferred to the Education Department and their work co-ordinated with that of the technical colleges. (d) That the non-matriculated students of the University colleges be transferred as far as is practicable to the technical colleges, with provision for the recognition of technical work done therein, in the event of students subsequently matriculating and desiring to proceed to degrees. (e) That in each of the four chief centres an approved number of members of the University College Council be appointed to membership of the Technical College Council, and vice versa; and that a joint Advisory Committee be set up by both Councils to consider and advise upon matters of common interest. (/) That the Universities of Northern and Southern New Zealand should each set up a Faculty of Technical Education to advise upon all applications by technical colleges for University recognition of courses, and to arrange for the joint conduct of all technological examinations in New Zealand. (16) (a) That the individual progress card system now in operation in the primary schools be extended to the intermediate and senior stages. (b) That upon the basis of the above progress card records Education Department certificates be issued by school Principals to all pupils on leaving school as follows : — (i) At the termination of the compulsory school age (15 years), the school leaving certificate, with provision for certification thereon of further education received in the case of pupils remaining at school to the age of 16 or 17 years as the case may be ; (ii) Upon completion of three years' education beyond the intermediate stage, the higher leaving certificate.
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(c) That both certificates be issued in three grades —A, B, and C —according to the degree of proficiency attained in the courses taken as determined by the Principal of the school; and that in the case of pupils awarded certificates of lower grade right of appeal be allowed to the District Superintendent of Schools, who shall determine the appeal by reference to the pupil's progress card, supplemented, if in his judgment such a course is warranted, by a special examination as hereinafter provided. (d) That Grade B, in the case of higher leaving certificates, should be equivalent to the standards required for matriculation by the proposed new Universities of Northern and Southern New Zealand, and Grade A equivalent to the standard required for honours at such examination. (e) That in order to meet border-line cases, as indicated above, arrangements be made by the Education Department for the institution of supplementary examinations of uniform character and of modern type, for which question papers should be prepared by the Department for use throughout all districts, with marking scales provided for the guidance of Superintendents and their staffs, by whom the answers should be marked ; and that such examinations should be conducted in the schools under the supervision of the Principal of the school. (/) That the prescriptions and standards of the supplementary examinations be those considered appropriate for the issue of certificates of Grade B, with provision for the issue in the case of exceptional papers of certificates of Grade A (honours) ; and that in so far as the subjects taken are those required for University matriculation they be in accordance with the standards approved by the University Schools Board of Studies hereinafter recommended to be set up, and in other subjects those prescribed by the Education Department. (17) (a) That a University Schools Board of Studies be set up, comprising representatives of the Universities, the Education Department, and the public and registered non-State secondary schools, to consider all questions relating to secondary-school studies, examinations, and certificates, and to advise the University Councils and the Education Department thereon. (b) That candidates for the University Entrance Examination be required to state in writing upon the form of entry for the examination their intention to enter upon a University course if successful in passing the examination; and that in every case and in all subjects the school records of candidates be taken into account by the examiners before determining whether candidates have passed or failed. (c) That parallel with the above examination system there be instituted a system of matriculation from approved schools upon their internal examination alone ; and that for this purpose higher leaving certificates of Grade A or B granted by such schools be accepted by the Universities for the purpose of matriculation. (d) That the right to approve schools for the purpose of accrediting pupils to the University colleges for matriculation under the preceding clause should rest with the University Councils, upon the recommendation of the Superintendent of Education of the district in which each applicant school is situated, who shall make a special report to such authorities upon each application referred to him for that purpose. (e) That in the event of the University Councils requiring further evidence of the fitness of any school to be placed upon the approved list they shall be empowered to call for a further report, and for that purpose to nominate a Special Board of Inspectors, selected, with the approval of the Minister, from within the inspectorial staff of the North or South Island, as the case may be, to make a full inspection and report upon the school concerned, the travelling and other expenses of such inspection to he divided equally between the University Council and the Education Department, or, in the case of registered non-State schools, the school concerned.
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(f) That in the event of an approved school failing, in the opinion of the Superintendent of Education, to maintain the required standard of efficiency, and such conditions continuing after warning given, the Superintendent shall report the school to the Minister of Education, who may, if he thinks fit, order the report to be forwarded for the consideration of the University Council; and that upon consideration thereof the Council shall have power to take such action as it may deem necessary either to caution or to disrate the school. (g) That separate records be kept within each University college of the progress and work of students entering by the two methods ; and that in the event of students from " approved " schools doing unsatisfactory work the University Council be empowered to report the circumstances to the Minister of Education ; and, if further students from the same school show similar unsatisfactory work, to ask for a special inspectorial report either from the Superintendent of Education or from the Special Board of Inspectors hereinbefore provided for, and, upon consideration thereof, to take such action as may be deemed necessary either to caution or to disrate the school. (h) That all candidates from " approved" schools who are not granted accredited passes should have the right to sit for the formal Matriculation Examination hereinbefore provided for. (18) That the present system of awarding University and other bursaries and allowances for higher education, including training-college studentships, be revised ; and that the bursary system already provided for in recommendation No. 5 be supplemented by the institution of a system of State financial assistance to deserving students by way of either straight-out grants, or loans, with or without interest, upon such repayment terms as may be deemed advisable, according to the special circumstances involved ; each application for assistance to be endorsed with the recommendation of the Superintendent of Education of the District in which the applicant resides, or of the Dean of the faculty within which the student is pursuing his studies, and to be considered upon its own merits. (19) (a) That outside the four centres the District Education Boards be the controlling authorities for all forms of post-secondary as well as secondary education, including higher technical classes and the training of apprentices. (6) That the system of vocational guidance already initiated be extended and developed ; and that the organization of vocational guidance work within each educational district be entrusted to the District Education Boards. (21) That the medical examination of children be extended to include all primary and secondary school children in the and that the training and duties of the teachers be so arranged as to enable them to give adequate attention to suitable physical education of the children in cases where the medical examination discloses a need for such education. (22) That this Committee recognizes the great value of the present School Dental Service, and recommends its further extension to the country districts. (23) That the adoption of the open-air type of school be encouraged where new schools and class-rooms are required. (24) (a) That, in the opinion of the Committee, home-work in the primary schools should not be necessary ; that in the primary schools the setting of homework in grammar and arithmetic should be prohibited ; and that in all schools, post-primary as well as primary, the imposition of home-work should be reduced to a minimum. (b) That corporal punishment be reduced to a minimum, and that a record be kept in all cases where it is inflicted. (25) That manual training facilities for special class children be extended, and that occupational centres be established for such of these children as have completed their school training, but are unable to compete in ordinary occupations.
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(26) That the classes for the teaching of deaf children that have already been established in Auckland, Wellington, and Dunedin be continued, and that the scope of their activities be extended so as to include the education of very young deaf children. (27) (a) That no system of religious instruction in State schools should be authorized such as will compulsorily require any State teacher to disclose his or her religious beliefs or his or her adherence to any particular denomination, or to take part in religious exercises other than of his or her own free will; but that, on the other hand, the fullest liberty should be given to those teachers who desire of their own accord to assist in the Nelson or any similar system of religious instruction that may be authorized by law. (b) That the following clause be inserted in the Education Act, namely : " Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the principal Act or in any direction given by the Board, if accredited persons approved by the Minister desire to give moral and religious instruction of a voluntary nature in school-buildings, the ordinary opening hour of the school shall be postponed, or the ordinary closing hour in the afternoon shall be advanced, on one day in each week, as agreed upon, for not more than half an hour, in order to enable the instruction to be conveniently given : " Provided that no alteration shall be made in the opening or closing hours which would reduce the number of hours to be devoted on that day to secular instruction to less than the minimum of four hours fixed by the principal Act." (28) That, in view of the great importance to humanity of the League of Nations, steps should be taken immediately to ensure that in all training colleges and schools the history, constitution, achievements and objects of the League should be effectively taught. (29) That, in view of the successful organization and administration of the Native schools by the Education Department, the schools in the Mandated Territory of Western Samoa and in the Cook Islands should be placed directly under its control. (30) That, having regard to the superannuation rights obtaining in the Public Service, the maximum allowance payable should be £300, and that the contributions to the fund be fixed upon an actuarial basis. (31) (a) That the Dominion should be represented at each Imperial Education Conference by the Director or Assistant Director of Education, or, in the event of their not being able to attend, by some other senior officer of the Department sent for that purpose. ('b) That every effort should be made to facilitate and extend the interchange of teachers, Inspectors, and administrators with overseas countries, and particularly with Great Britain and the sister Dominions. (c) That a liaison educational research officer be appointed to the Department of Education, who shall be directly responsible to the Minister for the organization and maintenance of direct contact with overseas education research institutes, schools of education, and other educational organizations of a like nature ; and for the collection of data regarding educational research work both in the Dominion and overseas for the information of the Minister, to whom he shall present reports from time to time as the Minister may require. (32) That, in view of the Committee's recommendations for the establishment of a Secondary Schools Board of Studies and a Faculty of Technical Education, the question of the continuance of the Council of Education should be reviewed. (33) (a) That in order to effect an immediate change-over to the principle of compulsory intermediate education the three intermediate grades (Forms I, 11, and III) be provisionally transferred to whichever school in any centre (district high, technical, or secondary) is at present best equipped to provide parallel exploratory courses of the desired character.
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(b) That notwithstanding the present financial stringency the national school building programme be proceed: 1 with at the normal rate, having in mind the settled policy of the State with regard to the steady reduction of the size of classes ; and that all new buildings be of such type as to enable the permanent scheme of intermediate education recommended in Chapter V to be brought into full operation as soon as possible. (c) That in order to enable the nine thousand additional fourteen-year-old pupils to be accommodated with a minimum of additional building expenditure, all available accommodation in existing school buildings be used to the full by making such provisional class transferences as may be necessary in connection with the change-over ; and by the immediate consolidation of small classes, where practicable, in the post-primary schools. (34) That a definite scheme should be worked out providing for the systematic reduction of the size of classes ; and that such scheme should aim at reducing the number in each class to a maximum of thirty-five within five years.
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APPENDIX. (a) NUMBER OF MEETINGS OF COMMITTEE. Full Committee, 73 ; Sub-Committee, 9. (Ib) ITINERARY OF COMMITTEE. 1929. 17th November.. .. Left Wellington for Auckland. 18th to 22nd November .. At Auckland. 23rd November.. .. Left Auckland for Rotorua. 26th November.. .. Left Rotorua for Matamata, Hamilton, and Te Kuiti. 27th November.. .. Left Te Kuiti for Piopio, Waitara, and New Plymouth. 28th November.. .. At New Plymouth. 29th November.. .. Left New Plymouth for Feilding and Palmerston North. 30th November.. .. Left Palmerston North for Wellington and connected with ferrysteamer to Lyttelton. Ist December .. Travelled to Christchurch en route for Dunedin. 2nd and 3rd December .. At Dunedin. 4th December .. Left Dunedin for Oamaru. sth December .. Left Oamaru for Christchurch. 6th to 9th December .. At Christchurch. 10th December .. Left Christchurch for Oxford, Rangiora, and Blenheim. 11th December .. Blenheim in morning ; left for Nelson in afternoon. 12th and 13th December.. At Nelson. 14th December .. Returned to Wellington, where the further deliberations of the Committee took place. (c) INSTITUTIONS VISITED BY COMMITTEE. University College, Auckland. Seddon Memorial Technical College, Auckland. Jubilee Institute for Blind, Auckland. Mount Eden Primary School, Auckland. Kowhai Junior High School, Auckland. St. Patrick's School, Auckland. Auckland Girls' Grammar School, Auckland. Auckland Boys' Grammar School, Auckland. Sacred Heart College, Auckland. St. Mary's College, Auckland. Auckland Training College, Auckland. Technical High School, Pukekohe. Northcote Junior High School, Northcote. King's College, Otahuhu. Native School, Whakarewarewa. Rotorua High School, Rotorua. Junior High School, Matamata. Hamilton High School, Hamilton. Hamilton Technical School, Hamilton. Piopio Consolidated School, Piopio. Waitara Primary School, Waitara. New Plymouth Boys' High School, New Plymouth. New Plymouth Girls' High School, New Plymouth. New Plymouth Technical School, New Plymouth. Feilding Agricultural High School, Feilding. Palmerston North Technical High School, Palmerston North. Massey Agricultural College, Palmerston North. Otago Boys' High School, Dunedin. Otago Girls' High School, Dunedin. King Edward Technical College, Dunedin. University of Otago, Dunedin. Home Science School, Otago University Dunedin. Dental School, Dunedin. Medical School, Dunedin. Waitaki Girls' High School, Oamaru.
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Waitaki Boys' High School, Oamaru. Redcastle Boys' College, Oamaru. Special School for Boys, Otekaike. Christchurch Training College, Christchurch. Avonside Girls' High School, Christchurch. Christchurch Boys' High School, Christchurch. Fendalton Open-air School, Christchurch. Linwood Avenue Open-air School, Christchurch. St. Andrew's College, Christchurch. St. Bede's College, Christchurch. Cathedral School for Girls, Christchurch. Christ's College, Christchurch. Canterbury College (Psychological Laboratory), Christchurch. Canterbury Agricultural College, Lincoln. Health Department's Farm for Subnormals, Templeton. School for the Deaf, Sumner. Oxford Consolidated School, Oxford. Rangiora High School, Rangiora. Marlborough College, Blenheim. Cawthron Institute ; also cool store and experimental plots, Nelson. Nelson Boys' College, Nelson. Nelson Girls' College, Nelson. Wellington Technical College, Wellington. (d) LIST OF WITNESSES. Thomas, Professor A. W. P., Chairman, Grammar Schools' Board, Auckland. Mahon, H. J. D., Headmaster, Auckland Boys' Grammar School, Auckland. Johnston, Miss E. M., Headmistress, Auckland Girls' Grammar School, Auckland. Fletcher, J. S., M.P., Auckland. MacGregor, A. G., Headmaster, Mount Eden Primary School, Auckland. O'Shea, M. R., Registrar, Auckland University College, Auckland. Lamb, Professor S. E., School of Engineering, University College, Auckland. Rudman, R. E., Headmaster, Kowhai Junior High School, Auckland. Schischka, Mrs. M., Auckland. Thomson, Rev. J. A., Bible in Schools League, Auckland. Archdall, Rev. H. K., Auckland Branch, Registered Private Secondary Schools, Auckland. Benignus, Rev. Brother, Auckland Branch, Registered Private Secondary Schools, Auckland. Watts, C- A., Deputy Chairman, Seddon Memorial Technical College, Auckland. Garrard, C. W., Senior Inspector of Schools, Auckland. Cutten, E. C., Stipendiary Magistrate, Auckland. Park, G. J., Principal, Seddon Memorial Technical College, Auckland. King, H. S. W., Chairman, Seddon Memorial Technical College Board, Auckland, and President, Technical Education Association of New Zealand. Allum, J. A. C., Member of Board of Governors, Seddon Memorial Technical College, Auckland. Chappell, S. E., Auckland School Committees' Association, Auckland. Thomas, N. R. W., Auckland Provincial Agricultural Educational Committee, Auckland. Garry, F. A., Auckland Headmasters' Association, Auckland. Carnachan, Miss B. E., Associate, Children's Court, Auckland. Entrican, J. C., Associate, Children's Court, Auckland. Rae, D. M., Principal, Auckland Training College, Auckland. Dunlop, D. W., Secretary, Auckland Education Board, Auckland. Hill, Dr. W. S., Agricultural Instructor, Technical College, Auckland. Hutchinson, A. J., Chairman, Board of Trustees, Jubilee Institute for Blind, Auckland. Bach, C. R., Assistant Teacher, Kowhai Junior High School, Auckland. Munro, W. F. J., Principal, Pukekohe Technical High School, Pukekohe. Nesbitt, R. 8., Chairman, Board of Governors, Rotorua High School, Rotorua. Ryder, A. R., Principal, Rotorua High School, Rotorua. Chatterton, Archdeacon F. W.; Speer, Rev. W. H.; Randerson, Rev, A. C., Bible in Schools League, Rotorua. Foote, F., Rector, Gisborne High School, Gisborne. Banks, E. C., Chairman, Matamata Junior High School Committee, Matamata. MacDiarmid, C. L., Chairman, High School Board, Hamilton. Wilson, E., Principal, Hamilton High School, Hamilton. Barnett, The Yery Rev. Dean, Hamilton Ministers' Association, Hamilton, and Hamilton Branch of Bible in Schools League. Snell, F. A., Chairman, Technical High School Board, Hamilton. Fraser, W., Principal, Technical High School, Hamilton. Webster, R. S., Headmaster, Consolidated School, Piopio. Smith, V. R., Wairere Falls. Allison, E. Y. K., Piopio.
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Neal, R. W., Piopio. Smith, S. G., M.P., Chairman, Taranaki Education Board, New Plymouth. Valentine, J. A., Member of Taranaki Education Board, New Plymouth. Billing, 11. R., Chairman, High Schools Board, New Plymouth. Moyes, W. H., Headmaster, Boys' High School, New Plymouth. Maclean, Miss N. 1., Acting-Principal, Girls' High School, New Plymouth. Moore, A. L., Principal, Technical College, New Plymouth. Trimble, H., Chairman, Technical High School Board, Stratford. Cocker, J., President, South Taranaki School Committees' Association, New Plymouth. Ricketts, W., Vice-President, South Taranaki School Committees' Association, New Plymouth. Sage, R. S., Chairman, Technical High School Board, Hawera. McLeod, W., Chairman of Advisory Board, Wanganui Apprenticeship Committee, Wanganui. Tolley, H., Chairman, Agricultural High School Board, Feilding. Wild, L. J., Principal, Agricultural High School, Feilding. McClure, C., President, Feilding Branch of the New Zealand Technical School Teachers' Association, Feilding. Swinbourn, W. A., President, New Zealand Primary Schools Headmasters' Association, Palmerston North. Birnie, W. R., Chairman, High Schools and Technical School Board of Governors, Palmerston North. Sidey, Hon. T. K., Chancellor, University of Otago, Dunedin. Scott, T., Chairman, Technical School Board, Dunedin. Aldridge, W. G., Principal, Technical High School, Dunedin. Fisher, A. G. 8., Professor of Economics, University of Otago, and Director, Workers' Educational Association, Dunedin. Selby, A. E., Teacher of Carpentry and Woodwork, Technical High School, Dunedin. Wallace, J., Chairman, Otago Education Board, Dunedin. Thompson, G. E., Professor of Modern Languages, University of Otago, Dunedin. King, Miss M. H., Principal, Girls' High School, Dunedin. Smith, C. R., representing Otago Expansion League, Dunedin. Allen, A. H., President, Chamber of Commerce, Dunedin. Renfrew White, J., Assistant Surgeon to the Dunedin Hospital; First Assistant to the Professor of Surgery, Otago University ; Lecturer on Hygiene, and Supervisor of Physical Education, Training College, Dunedin. Byers, Miss J., Student, Training College, Dunedin. Douglas, Dr. A., Acting-Chairman, Waitaki High Schools Board, Oamaru. McCulloch, M. K., Acting-Principal, Waitaki Boys' High School, Oamaru. Botting, H. A., Senior Assistant, Waitaki Junior Boys' High School, Oamaru. Lindsay, Miss C., Assistant, Girls' Junior High School, Oamaru. Macauley, Miss M. J., Assistant, Waitaki Girls' High School, Oamaru. Smith, D. V., Secretary, Waitaki High Schools Board, Oamaru. Fitzgerald, Dr. R. S. J., Oamaru. Gibb, W., President, South Island Federation of School Committees' Association, Timaru. Wild, R., Chairman, Canterbury Education Board, Christchurch. Wright, McGregor, Chairman, Technical College Board, Christchurch. Hansen, Dr. D. E., Principal, Technical College, Christchurch. Evison, S. R., Honorary Secretary, Canterbury School Committees' Association, Christchurch. Haggitt, The Ven. Rev. Archdeacon P. 8., Chairman, Christchurch Committee, Bible in State Schools League, Christchurch. Studholme, Colonel J. S., Dominion Treasurer, Bible in State Schools League, Christchurch. Sanders, Miss 8., Member of Christchurch Branch of Bible in State Schools League, Christchurch. Denny, L. R. R., President, Christchurch Branch of New Zealand Technical School Teachers' Association, Christchurch. Alexander, R. E., Director, Canterbury Agricultural College, Lincoln. Domitille, Mary St., Sacred Heart Girls' College, Christchurch. Bevan Brown, Dr. F. V., Vice-President, Open-air Schools League, Christchurch. Shelley, Professor J., Canterbury University College, Christchurch. Beeby, Dr. C. E., Canterbury University College, Christchurch. Hight, Dr. J., Rector, Canterbury University College, Christchurch. West-Watson, Right Rev. Dr., Bishop of Christchurch, Christchurch. West-Watson, Mrs. E. M., President, Canterbury Mothers' Union, Christchurch. Machin, W., Chairman, Economics Committee, Canterbury Chamber of Commerce, Christchurch. Rigg, John, Teacher of Elocution, Christchurch. Robinson, Miss M. 8., New Zealand Technical Teachers' Association, Christchurch. Wilkie, Miss M., Principal, Girls' Training Hostel, Christchurch. Shaw, Miss J. M., Sydenham, Manual Training College, Christchurch. Gilbert, Rev. T. A.,' Rector, St. Bede's College, Christchurch. Wilkins, L. J., Christchurch. Crawford, J. M. 8., Director, School for the Deaf, Sumner. Crisp, J. D., Chairman, School Committee, Lincoln. Bringans, A., Headmaster, Consolidated School, Oxford. Brown, Rev. C., Secretary, Consolidated School Committee, Oxford. Burnett, Dr. L, 8., Oxford.
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Turner, Rev. H. R., Secretary, Oxford Ministers' Association, Oxford. Strachan, J. E., Principal, High School, Rangiora. Jennings, C. 1., Chairman, High School Board, Rangiora. Girling, W. J., Marlborough College Board, Blenheim. Stewart, J., Principal, Marlborough College, Blenheim. Savage, W. H., Art Master, Marlborough College, Blenheim. Fell, C. R., Nelson College Board, Nelson. Smith, F. W. 0., Chairman, Nelson Education Board, Nelson. Armour, W. A., Headmaster, Boys' College, Wellington, and President, New Zealand Secondary Schools Association, Wellington. Ferguson, S. H., Secretary, Wellington Branch, Bible in State Schools League, Wellington, and Headmaster, Wadestown School, Wellington. Fraser, W., President, New Zealand Technical School Teachers' Association, Hamilton. James, T. L., Secretary, New Zealand Technical School Teachers' Association, Wellington. Blamires, Rev. E. 0., Secretary, New Zealand Bible in Schools League, Masterton. Howell, J. H., Director and Secretary, Technical College, Wellington. Hennessey, L., Chairman, Wellington School Committees' Association, Wellington. Ferris, A. J., and Callus, H. J., Teachers' Training College, Wellington. Wilkinson, the Rev. F. M., Dominion Council of League of Nations Union, Wellington. Lomas, E. K., Principal, Teachers' Training College, Wellington. Andrews, Miss E., President, New Zealand Women Teachers' Association, New Plymouth. Valentine, Miss W. A., Supervisor of Special Classes, Education Department, Wellington. Poison, J. 6., President, New Zealand Educational Institute, Christchurch. Parkinson, H. A., Secretary, New Zealand Educational Institute, Wellington. Banner, 0. A., Wellington Headmasters' Association, Wellington. Isaac, Nelson, Head of Art School, Wellington Technical College, Wellington. Strong, T. 8., Director of Education, Wellington. Pow, Colonel J., Secretary, New Zealand Farmers' Union, Wellington. Park, A. D., Secretary to the Treasury, Wellington. Gibb, Rev. Dr., President, Dominion League of Nations Union, Wellington. Nash, W., M.P., Treasurer, New Zealand Branch of the League of Nations Union, Wellington. La Trobe, W. S., Superintendent of Technical Instruction, Education Department, Wellington. Wakelin, W. J., Officer in Charge, District Office, Labour Department, Wellington. Maslen, Mrs. E., Secretary, Workers' Educational Association, Wellington. Sutherland, Dr. I. L. G., Director, Workers' Educational Association, Wellington. Ingram, N. A., President, Wellington Federation of Educational Associations, Wellington. Paterson, Dr. Ada, Director, Division of School Hygiene, Health Department, Wellington. Renner, F. Martyn, Secondary Schools Association, Wellington. Beck, J., Superintendent, Child Welfare Branch, Education Department, Wellington. Cockayne, Dr. L., Board of Governors of the New Zealand Institute, Wellington. Mcllraith, Dr. J. W., Senior Inspector of Schools, Wellington. Saunders, J. L., Director of Dental Hygiene, Health Department, Wellington. Hunter, Professor T. A., Victoria University College, Wellington. Rankine Brown, Professor J., Victoria University College, Wellington. Kimbell, A. H., Under-Secretary, Mines Department, Wellington. Henderson, Dr. J., Director Geological Survey Branch, Wellington.
Approximate Cost of Paper. —Preparation, not given; printing (8,550 copies, .also 1,500 copies Part I ami 250 copies Part 11, including graph), £545.3
Authority : W. A. G. Skinner, Government Printer, Wellington. —1930.
Price 2s. 9d.]
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Bibliographic details
RECESS EDUCATION COMMITTEE (REPORT OF THE, ON EDUCATIONAL REORGANIZATION IN NEW ZEALAND). (Mr. BODKIN, Chairman.), Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1930 Session I, I-08a
Word Count
121,240RECESS EDUCATION COMMITTEE (REPORT OF THE, ON EDUCATIONAL REORGANIZATION IN NEW ZEALAND). (Mr. BODKIN, Chairman.) Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1930 Session I, I-08a
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