A WARNING NOTE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 214, 29 May 1918, Page 6

A WARNING NOTE

OUIt NATIONAL EDUCATION . SYSTEM. A highly interesting paper dealing with our educational system and how it. might bo improved, read by Mr. Thujas Forsyth (a member of the WcUingl...n Education Board) at the Central Chamber of Commerce last evening, contaiued the following:— "Tho greatest menace to our present system is. tho general apathy of the people of the Dominion, which in turn is strongly reflected in the greater number of our members of Parliament, and we are getting from the Government of this country just what 'we deserve, nothing mnro and nothing less, and while this state of affairs is very deplorable tt will continue unless you as individuals are prepared to demand a change. Although a large number of people are now waking up to the fact that something must, be dono to improve our system, my own conviction auu fear is that in tho near future, unless the people bestir themselves, it will not be a question of improving our system, but of being able to retain and maintain our national system of education. Arising out of, and quite a natural sequence to, our national in; difference or apathy, there has arisen a very grave danger and menace In our present system in the shape of denominational schools. It may be argued that the Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, Anglicans, and Methodists have every right to run their own particular pri-vately-owned denominational schools at their own expense, but it has recently been admitted by the present Minister ot Education that by some mysterious influence the people's money had soma years ago been wrongly directed and surreptitiously granted to certain denominational schools in the form of scholarships.

"The Department's regulations do not npply to privato schools, and it is manifestly unfair to the students attending our national institutions that students attending the denominational schools should be allowed to compete with tliem. The granting of scholarships to outside schools shows clearly that it is but the thin end of the wedge for further financial assistance to support such denomina. tionnl schools, aud this must Ik strenuously opposed by all who are interested in and wish to. retain our national system nf education. To <lo otherwise is to create class distinctions which must develop into sectarian strife, and thus tend to weaken, if not destroy, our present national system, as well as the Unity n[ the Empire."