University Education Commission

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 30, 12 August 1925, Page 29

University Education Commission

AN ADVISORY COUNCIL FOR SECONDARY EDUCATION;

;=r \ 1 _ : In giving^evidence before the University Commission during its sitting 3 in Auckland, Rev. Brother Osmond, B.Sc., submitted the V following observations on Secondary Education arid the teaching profession:— ■ • There is no problem ' more complicated nor more fraught with serious consequences to any government than that of secondary education. Its importance is vital to all; its ■ extensiveness includes every branch of knowledgeacademic, professional, technical, and commercial. It might be defined in the words ( of the English Royal Commission on Secondary Education in 1894 as “that process of intellectual training and personal discipline conducted with special regard to . the pro- : - fession or the trade to be followed.” Accepting this as a definition it follows that secondary education is a national con- ; - cern upon the right solution of which will depend in very great measure the prosperity of the country. If secondary education must prepare for the professions and for industry, then a grave problem arises in regard to the establishment, management, and efficiency of schools for industrial work. . It seems to me that our secondary system is unduly academic. If so, it caters for the ■ ’.minority/ who look towards the professions ; r ;’ and is insufficient for the majority who bend towards industrial avocations. This is borne out by the Year Book of 1924 wherein it is / \ stated that there are 13 Technical High Schools, but 36 Secondary Schools. Morev over secondary work is done in 61 District .V,— High Schools. The Technical High Schools have over 4000 students, while the secondary schools carry more than 15,000. i Of the Technical students only a couple £rr of hundred are at Agriculture, and not many more than 1000 in the Industrial Section. There is need in the Dominion for the de’rl velopment of Trade Schools, or, at least, a series of Intermediate Schools modelled on the London Central School system where ! practical work in wood and metal correlated with work in mathematics and science, gives a preparation for industrial life. • But who in our educational life and administration represents this great industrial " phase of national welfare? and to what extent is our system keeping in touch with the industries 1 :* t- r r< - * • • * The interests of such show the need of an Advisory Council for • Secondary Educa- •' tion. The personnel of such a Council might give* room for much discussion, but the desirability of creating such" a Council may be wide-spread. The English Commission in |(| its report stated that the only ones to object to the establishment of such‘a Council were “the officials, politicians, and jurists.” J-- ■ ■' Nature of the Council. ' ' '45 r I think the Council of Education should - ifeer constituted somewhat as follows: ;■ --.v- # • % ' 1. Two representatives from the University, one of- whom should be a Professor of Educa- > \ tl ° n v .; . f 2. Four from the Department of Public ' Instructionthe Director, of Education (who

should be chairman), the Director General of Agriculture, , and the . Superintendent' of Technical arid Commercial Education. 3. Two from private registered schools to be elected by the headmasters of such schools. 4. One to be nominated by the Chamber of Commerce. 5. One to be nominated by the Trades Hall. ' . _ ; '' Such a Council would give all the elements concerned with the administrative, professional, and practical sides of education; it would be free from political influence it would furnish information that neither the Minister for Education, nor the Department should he expected to have; it would tend to minimise the danger of stagnation which the routine of a bureaucratic system sometimes fosters. Many observers maintain that the great progress made by Germany was duenot to its primary education— to its secondary education. Possibilities of choice are numerous until in the Hochschulen the variety corresponds to the many demands of the German people. ■ It serves us little purpose to increase the traditional kind of high school, or to regardHigh Schools as the ante-rooms to the University, Such a system is no doubt admirable for doctors and lawyers, clerks and teachers, but the children of the workers who are taxed for the system are not getting their share of the equipment necessary for efficiency in their future avocations. Hence we need trade schools, and a definite correlation between our Secondary Schools and the industrial needs of the community. THE UNIVERSITY AND THE TEACHING PROFESSION. A Teacher’s Degree. The hall-mark for any professional man is the special degree that differentiates him from those of any other profession. Doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc., have all their special studies to equip them for success in their special avocations, but the biggest profession of allthat of teachinghas no such distinguishing course. Their University work is simply cultural and is not a preparation for their profession. A.B.A. is no more suited for the teaching profession than is a B.Sc, for engineering. What teachers need is a B.Ed. The course should be a four years one, done in conjunction with" the Training College where , the practical work necessary for the Degree could be accomplished. The course should be extensive, rather than intensive, including 1 language and science.. But the literature should not be on the same lilies as that done for the 8.A., not the science like that for the B.Sc. I doubt if more than one-third of the work done for these degrees is of service to the teacher. ' It is not uncommon that graduates in Arts realising that their status qualifies for no particular profession, tumble into teach- , r r . ' - - ing; while the teachers themselves having no professional degree to aspire to, acfcept the,

cultural dries thus tending to intensify the , J • - k V• * A -*• • -v: «.»''• rt’ • -> V V «|- Ad - academic bias of our higher education. If from the , Arts % course { one " subtracts t those preparing for the legal profession, clerical occupation, arid teaching, very few would be left. ■ All the professions depend upon the . University for their proficiency and protection., m The University’s imprimatur is needed vt» ' differentiate the capable from the incapable and ".the qualified "man from- the -quack. . The B.Ed. should embrace not only‘a wide range of subjects, but also the most approved methods of instruction in those subjects. Methodology would : be . the work ‘of .! the : Training College,, but the theory underlying instruction— principles of education—would rest mostly with the University, Until the teaching profession is well instructed in the theory of education, its members will always run the risk of being a prey to misguided theorists and faddists. - • The degree would raise the status of the teaching profession and consummate a meet : desirable union—that,of the Training College and the University, , ✓ It has been recently suggested that for higher education administrative. purposes the Dominion he divided into four sections corresponding to the four Provinces, The suggestion seems to be an excellent one. Teachers’ Colleges are established in the four University centres, thus giving facilities for'£|| proper training in . the four great .centres of the Dominion. ' ; . Such a scheme would give added interest, in education; local conditions would be more ’, effectively considered, and it would bringeach of the University Colleges into more prominence as the coping stone of, the educational edifice of its own provincial centre. In such a case four Advisory.. Councils would be preferable to one, (thus stimulating , - local interest, which, when time and conditions warrant, would find its full fruition in separate Universities. ' . .V Finally, I hold that whether a citizen desires to hold service directly under the State, or otherwise, his right to obtain full qualification for a profession cannot justly < be denied him; hence the Training Colleges , should be open, to any one desirous of taking education as a profession. | - <*> ■■ ■ v .'

OBITUARY MRS. AGNES COONEY, PAPAKURA. With regret the death is recorded ab Papa- | kura of Mrs. Agnes Cooney, wife of Mr, Matthew Cooney and youngest 'daughter of the late Mr. 'and Mrs. Patrick McGuire, Ponsonby, Auckland. Deceased,, who" had resided in Ellerslie for the past five years ,1 . ’ ' I* n where she was well known for her many ; acts of charity, had only removed to her new home at Papakura two months ago. V Although she had been ailing for a few weeks r her death, which'was unexpected, caused a shock to her many friends., The deceased was attended, during her illness by Rev. . Father Skinner, of Otahuhu, who. imparted the last sacred rites of Holy Church. Much * sympathy fis felt for her bereaved ' husband, two children, and sisters.—R.l.P. . v