PROBLEMS FACING EDUCATION IN N.Z.

Press, Volume C, Issue 29509, 10 May 1961, Page 6

PROBLEMS FACING EDUCATION IN N.Z.

-The Press’' Special Service

WELLINGTON, May 8. “Education is faced with a two-fold problem," said Mr F. Dyer, Dominion president of the New Zealand Educational Institute, in his address to the annual meeting of the institute in Wellington. First, the scientific developments and achievements of the modern world challenge New Zealand to keep pace with the rest of the world, and second, the need for education in our own democratic country is so great that our whole future depends on a new attitude towards education. It cannot take place without a new outlook by the people whom governments exist to serve. Neither of these problems can be dealt with in isolation; each impinges on the other. “Ever since I have been connected with institute work, I have become more and more aware how education is affected by crises. There was the depression and the closing of training colleges and the loss of young teachers. After the war, we were faced with a personal shortage, and the higher post-war birth-rate. “We now have a rapidly increasing population which calls for more and more teachers and, on the other

hand, rapidly expanding industries which can outbid the schools for labour. “Though these crises are real, they are not entirely new. What is new and important about this decade is the way it differs from the past,” Mr Dyer said. “Csmnot Watt” “Education cannot wait. Children grow up and educational opportunities once missed are seldom repeated, ‘‘There is little chance of absorbing into the education system the prospective pupils already born without loss of teaching efficiency. I emphasise this point because, whatever the devotion of teachers, they cannot hope to achieve the results they would like in the conditions imposed upon them. “The problems we are facing are caused by the changes occurring in all phases of life at frightening speed. They mostly arise from the need for us to adapt ourselves to recent discoveries in science and technology. "These have revolutionised production techniques and must inevitably revolutionise our attitude to industrial economic, and social development “We must also remember that progress in communication bring these technical changes—and the moral issues arising from them—right into the home. “But the problems produced by science cannot be solved by science alone.” said Mr Dyer. “They are problems of

the human mind, problems of our society. Their solution depends on a constantly rising level of understanding through the training of more people in the humanities. Never before have we needed so much uncommon common sense, tolerance, and nobility of character. “Such a programme implies not only education in all subjects and disciplines at all levels, but also education of all our students to the maximum of their varying abilities. “To say that, as all must be educated, all must be educated alike can lead only to mediocrity. We cannot afford to waste our intellectual resources, and to give one child an education below his natural level. “Education has never been more important. It is the one machine we can use in social engineering to make life better in the future than in the past. We can no longer go on pretending that we cannot afford to train scientists and technologists in greater numbers and at enormous cost. This cost must be spread from the primary sifiiools to the universities. “The issue is clear, but it is difficult to persuade politicians and hard-headed businessmen that something must be done about it. Education is an investment. However, we must face the fact that even a wealthy country cannot do all it wants to do at once. It is tempting sometimes to compare the amount spent on education and on tobacco, beer, or the T.A.B. But the choice is often between national necessities, between education and health services or development. One man’s necessity tends to seem like another man’s extravagance. Suggested Moves “We must do all in our power to influence governments to give education the priority it deserves—that is the highest priority. To do this we must convince the people. Governments will do what the people want, or they do not survive. By appropriate propaganda we must convince the people that what we ask is not for ourselves, but for their children, not for teachers but for teaching. "Second, the Government, any government, must set aside far more of the national income for education. We must see that governments have no alternative but to act. "In our children we have our greatest asset; to fight for the best possible education for them is worthy of all of us. We must have the material means, but as a country we must also have faith in our cause.”