THE MAKING OF GOOD CITIZENS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 243, 2 July 1918, Page 6

THE MAKING OF GOOD CITIZENS

$. EDUCATION CONFERENCE IN MELBOURNE. The Conference of the State Directors of Education held in .Melbourne last week, devoted a considerable amount of time to the important question of continued education. The Minister for Education (Mr. James) said that tlio conference considered that the educational system of all the States should look into the. provision for training young peopio front H to 18 years of age for the responsibility of citizenship; Only about 2j percent, of our young people received at high schools, technical schools, trade schools, and evening schools some education beyond the primary school. But of 60,000 Australian children vim reach the age of U years annually, 00,000 go out into the social and economic lii'e of tho State with only a primary school education, and no further training for tlw duties of citizenship than is obtained from tlio fortuitous opportunities surrounding .their lives betweou the ages of 14 and 21. Tho directors emphasised the fact that Commonwealth history has shown that so long as 00,000 young people leave tho schools and are 'eft without any other direction for the succeeding seveu jears, Australia must naturally fail to establish the type of citizen required in its social and industrial lile. Tho conference unanimously recommended that it was necessary that a standard of general education, possible for normal children up o the age ct 11, should be required of all, but beyond this period 1 facilities lor continued instruction should be made available. _ to train, the young people for the various vocations which call for skill and knowledge. . It was recognised, however, that special training is necessary lor only a small proportion of occupations. The conference urged that r.oro is needed than the forms of advanced education which tho various btates liiuo striven to establish. It was contended that if the schools provided something in the nature of a club, combining bitli social and educational features, with provision for physical training and the creation of fresh intelligence, such a. scheme would make a stronger appeal to young neotilo. The advisability ot linking u,p continued education with compulsory military training was considered worthy of careful consideration. The conference olso recommended that indentured apprentices from J6 to !•« vears of age, should be allowed to go through supplementary school training during their working hours, seeing that tho training now given m technical schools has been regarded in tlio past as an obligation resting upon the employer to his apprentice. Tho (wnfcivnoe finally rosohvd tluu all methods at present adopted in the various States for technical training ot workmen should bo developed to turn highest extent, and given as wide a support as possible throughout all our centres of population.