EDUCATION AIMS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 85, 3 January 1918, Page 6

EDUCATION AIMS

V. CHIEF PRELIMINARIES TO REFORM IN ; THE SCHOOLS AWAKENING OF PUBLIC INTEREST The executive of "the New Zealand Educational Institute thus _ expresses ~ itself \ux]u the chief preliminaries necessary to sound educational roform: — "As preliminaries to the comprehensive educational reform that national welfare demands there aro evident, among others, two principal desiderata. The first of these is an awakening of . tho general public not only _ to tho needs of the educational situation, but to,, possibilities that depend upon educational progress—for it is too often ' forgotten, especially by politicians, that money and energy invested in education is always higmy'reproductive in, every form of national good. This awakening has already commenced, but ■it needs stimulating and extending, - and from it there will bo, brought to the assistance of education an active and enlightened local interest that has in the past been most noticeably lackin".... An education system can do its work tho -fullest effect only when, * directed and stimulated by a national education board, it calls out and employs the energy and intelligence of the people of each district in aiding andextending the work of the so'hools or the district. The best way to do this is probably to make use of the existing local governing hpdies—county councils, borough councils, and so onto give them certain definite portions of the education systemVto administer and develop, to give them power.to -call to their counsel by 'co-optation ; any persons whose advice and as-- : sistance would be valuable, and by a ' system of subsidies to encourage them to raise local funds for this greatest of

. all local benefits. , "There are parts of tho work of edu- , cation that could be very greatly help- / 1 ed by local enthusiasm directed in this way.. , Physical-development, art and ; ~; craft'work, young people's" social organisations, as well as secondary ..and schools as generally understood ' all offer themselves as scope for local interest and energy; and they so lend themselves to organisation and co-or-dination that the maximum of efficiency may very well be anticipated. With efficiency there will also be secured cco--1 jiomy, for when tho various phases of the work are controlled by the one authority tho best use can be made of teaching power and equipment. "The mention of teaching power brings us to the second of tho two preliminary essentials referred to —the provision of a vastly improved teaching staff, and the more effective ■use-of the staff when secured. ' More teachers are needed, a. better quality ( of recruits is needed, adequate training of these Tecruits is needed, and tho conditions of schools and classes must be so improved- as to allow the teachers, - when trained, to carry on the work of education with some regard to the -lessons that the educational and medical sciences have' taught us. Last ''year 29 per cent. —nearly one-third —of the teachers in primary schools, were without any form of certificate, and in secondary and technical schools a very large proportion of the teachers are uhtrained. And this staff is employed in such a way as to give far from the maximum of • effectiveness in results. \ In large schools there are classes numbering up to seventy and eighty pupils; and in some country districts there are groups of perhaps four or five schools ' containing in the aggregate not moro : pupils than one of these large classes/ Why aT6 these small schools not con r solidated into one larger, efficient school, and the teachers thus liberated used to reduce the unwieldy regiments tin the others? , The time is ripe for ' taking this matter resolutely in hand. More and better recruits must be found for the teaching service, and if money is required ,to do it; the money inust be foun^J. "Let it be repeated; the life of the nation depends on the education of its people, and it is no reply to say that 'tho country cannot afford it. In very 'truth tho 'country cannot afford not to afford it. ' To'.refuse to provide : the ' means of mental, moral, and physical 'health and growth, which is wbht education means, is to open the door for the entry,of disease and decay."