EDUCATION: INJUSTICE TO GIRLS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 256, 17 July 1918, Page 6

EDUCATION: INJUSTICE TO GIRLS

i . ' j (To the Editor.) j Sir,—Last week's l.iigh.-ii mnil brought to hand a veritable ouogt-i «i inionuatiun respecting tlie steps vnat are wins, taken uy the uovernnieni; to lnvesugaib tiie metnods of sei-eutiiic teaching and training as embodied ia the educational system of Great Britain, Mr. Lloya Uearge recently appointed a committee'to . inquire into the position, The report deals witli the delects and omissions oi llio existing .system, and empnasises the need ol securing for science a more prominent place in tho curricula of elementary, secondary, and technical schools, in the wort of the universities, and in» the examinations for medicine, engineering, tho Army, and the Civil Service, England, it was shown, has paid a heavy price for its neglect of ficienco in tiie .past; it is necessary in war—in deience and offence. It is equally necessary in the interests of ttio industrial development of tae country. One of tho most important decisions arrived at by the committee was the need for a great increase in the supply of trained scientific workers of all grades lor our industries. This need, thev assert, is "a matter of the utmost gravity and urgency"; and, the report continues, it is absolutely necessary for the prosperity and safety of the country after tho war that the development of the resources of the Empire and the production of our industries must be on a scale greatly in excess of anything we nave hitherto achieved. Schemes of reconstruction will be impotent without a large army of trained workere, and it , will be impossible to get these in anything like sufficient numbers unless wo have great changes in our educational system, and above all, unless a much more eager desire for secondary education is created in the minds of a great mass of our citizens.;" It is • encouraging to notice in the report that the committee was unanimous in its advocacy of placing by means of scholarships and maintenance allowances, a compete course of training within, tho reacn of every boy or girl of sufficient ability to profit by it. The splendid results accruing to the scientific work done by women was alluded „to, and it was urged that every inducement should be offered to girls as well as to boys to specialise in scientific pursuits. Women were filling the gaps in the laboratories as the supply of men, became more and .more inadequate, but too few women had hitherto been permitted a complete scientific training, and the "defioiency of recruits for tho scientific professions and industries was so great that 110 . available source of supply should be left untapped." So /much for England. Now, what is New Zealand doing? In the report of the recent sittings of tho Council of Education neither the Minister of Education nor the Director said anything that would lead us to believe that they held even an elementary idea of their responsibilities towards the country through tho science students; though our producing power can only be increased by well-directed research, better training, ' and tho. more skilful use of scientific methods' of manufacture and distribution. The scarcity of men in England has led to the total abolition of the prewar conventional male objections against women, filling responsible positions in the Government Service, or the scientific and industrial worlds. But the New Zealand Government is embracing the doctrine transplanted from Munich before tho war, and is denying girls tho right to determine their own life career. In primary and secondary schools they are forced to specialise in domestic work and sewing at the cost of ordinary mental development. Not satisfied with cutting oft' any choice as to af scientific course by ail insistence 011 needlework, domestic duties, and botany, tlie latest infringement of the limited "rights of tho college girl is to substitute still moro sewing in place of botany for tlie freeplace pupils. Meanwhile, the boys, with whom she must compete for her livelihood when she leaves school, are free to profit uninterruptedly by a, general all-round development. But apart from the economic injustice to girls by this compulsory differentiation, the Minister of Education is miserably foiling in his duty to tho Empire. Great Britain is calling out for trained scientific workers —men and women. Great Britain's need is New Zealand's need; but the cry of 1 Empire is ignored, and the girls who would rally to the cry are compelled to sew and to clean brass and copper pans and to clean kid gloves. The failure of the Education Department to reach to the height of patriotism demanded of it, by the cry for scientific women, can bo •most charitably explained away by attributing to the Minister a lack of imagination' which prevents his forming any idea of tho .work which English women are doing to-day, by the side of which, the' war work of women in this country is like comic opera. It is an intolerable injustice to tfce ardent, clover girls of this youfig country that they should be 1 debarred from the intellectual stiinu--1 Ins which fheir English sisters enjoy, of the right to choose their own career, ) and at the same time to help the Em--1 piro in its need by doing their share of - the work in the outer world.—l, am, etc., [ . • THE WATCHDOG.