FREE-PLACE TROUBLE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2793, 10 June 1916, Page 12

FREE-PLACE TROUBLE

HEADMASTERS ASSOCIATION'S VIEWS. As many parents are. awaro, tho breakdown in tho matter of finding free places in secondary schools for school-children who have qualified for them by reason of being the holders of proficiency, certificates, occurred somo years ago, since when there has been a good deal of heartburning; among parents' whose children havo- been unable to avail themselves, through stress of circumstances, of the Government assistance. The trouble was said to bo-very acute at tho beginning of the current school year, and has 'received the attention of tho Wellington Headmasters' Association, who after consideration forwarded tho following opinion to tho Wellington Education Board, which has in turn forwarded it on to tho Minister of Education (the Hon. J. A. Hanan). The opinion is as follows:— "1. The Education Act and tho regulations thereunder provide that tho holder of a Sixth proficiency certificate under tho ago of 15 years is entitled to admission for free secondary education in a secondary school, technical school, or' secondary department of a district high echool.

"2. Tho Education Act -nowhere cmpowers the principal of .any such school named in Paragraph 1 to hold an entrance examination, which may override the departmental' inspectors' (of . primary schools) examination for Sixth proficiency certificates. "3. No person holding a Sixth proficiency certificate, and 1 fulfilling tho other conditions laid down by tho Education Act and its regulations, should bo excluded from a secondary school except on the ground of lack of accommodation. "4. No pupil holding a lower qualification than that of tho Sixth Standard proficicncy certificate should bo admitted to a secondary school until those pupils holding such proficiency certificates who demand admission liavo been enrolled. "5. In view of the exclusion of certain qualified pupils from the Wellington Girls' College at the beginning of this war, tlm advertisement appearing at intervals during February,'lolo, offering to receive pupils under ten years of ago at Riiecially reduced fees requires cxplana''"fi'. In cases where the accommodation ill secondary schools is inadequate, it is su"gested that tho principle adopted by the Wellington Education Board of admission ill order of merit is more in accord■iiice with the spirit, of the free place regulations than by admission in order of application as provided by regulations."