UNIFY CONTROL OF SCHOOLS

Chronicle (Levin), 17 May 1946, Page 3

UNIFY CONTROL OF SCHOOLS

REQUEST TO government "WELLINGTON, May 16. I'niilcution oi' controi of primary and secondary education in Ihe Dominion is lo be asked of Ihe Government by tlie Ncw Zealand Edueational Institute. A remit to this cfTect was unanimously passed today al'thc annual meeting oi the institute, At present there was a most harm1'uJ organie separation betwecn the two branehes oi education, said Mr. I. Buehanun (Hutt- Yalley), in moving the adoption of the remit. The need tu unite theni ivas urgcnt. The remit read: "That as uniiieatiun oi primary and secondary brauelies of education is essential to the eilieieney oi the Dominiou 's edueational system, the Government be asked to bring about this urgent reform at the earliest possible moment. ' ' Eeeentlv the Education Department, with an insight into the needs oi the times that did it eredit, had recast ihe post -primary syllabus of instruction, tliereby rmproving its eontinuity with the primary syllabus, said Mr. Bnclianan. The next step, as praetical as it was logical, would be to give a vital reality to that eontinuity by bringing tlie teachers under one direetioh. It might be argued that as the two branehes of education were under one dcpartmental controi, there was unity. On the e'ontrary, there was almost comidete dualism, said the speaker. The iiispeetoratc through whieli the department worked, ^\as divided into primary and secondary. The two kinds of inspectors had next to no iuterrclationsliip. The secondary scliools liad their own boards oi governors for the purposes of local administration. These Boards of Governors had no rclationship to the nine Education Boards whose functiou it was to carry on the local administration of primary scliools.