POSITION OF SCHOOLS

Press, Volume C, Issue 29505, 5 May 1961, Page 19

POSITION OF SCHOOLS

‘ln Bondage Tot School Cert. 9 .

(N.Z Press Association) AUCKLAND. May 4. Few schools provide thelf pupils with generous education aimed at developing them to the limits of their potentialities both as individual* and as citizens of * democracy. This is because schools are in bondage tQ the School Certificate examination, as thev were before 1944 to the University Entrance examination. This situation has grave effects on young person*, education, some intellectual groups being more gravely affected than others. Mrs Phoebe Meikle, a former head mistress of Takapuna Grammar School, submitted to the Commission on Education at Auckland today. More Subjects She felt that the ablest of School Certificate candidates could cope with six or seven subjects, not just the five usually taken. But she also felt the School Certificate pressure was not the basic cause of the mal-education of slow, learners. Many schools would like to have special slow-learner classes and programmes for general subject* but, until recently, most parents refused to face the fact that their children might be slow learners with special educational needs.