EDUCATION REFORM

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 295, 2 September 1918, Page 7

EDUCATION REFORM

LECTURE BY MISS N. E. COAD. "The' Workers' Interest in Education" was the subject of an address delivered by Miss N.i E. Goad, M.A., under the auspices-of'the Social Democratic Party, in the Alexandra. Hall last night. Miss Coad spoke of the educational reforms necossary in this country, making special mention of tho great need for continuation classes, for both vocational and cultural training. She said that in spite of the need, for better education of the people thei» would' no doubt be the (strongest opposition from the industrial and commercial interests to any_ proposals of the sort. Similar opposition in England had killed Education Bill arte: Education Bill at intervals for the pant hundred years. The people in this democratic country should ■ bring such pressure to bear on the Government that educational advantages should bo no longer withheld from theboys and girls. It was generally admitted that on them the worst nf tho burdena of the war would fall, awl it was the duty of tho State to prepare the young people for the heavy responsibility which was to be theirs in the years to follow the war. Miss Coad addressed somo special exhortations to women to take an interest in tho subject of education, saying that the subject was one in which women could with advantage take an interest. She bad a fow words to say about the education of girls, her chief point being that girls shoifld not be asked to sacrifice too much general training to the subject of domestic science. Miss Coad ridiculed the excuse very often made that New Zealand could not afford to spend more money on the education of its children.