1

1945 NEW ZEALAND

REPORT OF THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31st DECEMBER, 1944 (In continuation of E.-1, 1944)

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency

Office of the Department of Education, Wellington, 25th June, 1945. Your Excellency — I have the honour, in accordance with the provisions of the Education Act, 1914, to submit to Your Excellency the following report upon the progress and condition of public education in New Zealand during the year ended the 31st December, 1944. I have, &c., His Excellency the Governor-General of the H. G. R. Mason. Dominion of New Zealand.

REPORT Conference on Education. —The most important educational event in 1944 was the Conference on Education, which was held in Christchurch during October. It was attended by 120 people representative of some seventy different organizations directly or indirectly concerned with education. In issuing invitations to the Conference I asked interested bodies to suggest topics for discussion and to submit memoranda giving their views on education in the post-war world. My request stimulated an amount of hard thinking on education that was most heartening. A large number of reports and memoranda were received, ranging from statements on individual topics to comprehensive publications such as the Wanganui Education Board's publication, " Report on Character Training and Citizenship," and the New Zealand Educational Institute's two books, " Educational Reconstruction" and "Religious Instruction in Schools." The material received from all sources was analysed and published in a digested form in " Reports and Memoranda for the Ministerial Conference on Education." I arranged for the publication of an illustrated volume," Education Today and Tomorrow," which surveys the whole of New Zealand's education system, showing the advances made in the past ten years and setting out the Government's policy in education for the immediate future. The agenda for the Conference, decided on the basis of popular demand, comprised five major topics : pre-school services, youth services, adult education, religion in education, and rural education. In addition, provision was made for two " opeft forums," one on the primary school, and the other on the " Report of the Consultative Committee on the Post-Primary School Curriculum," The