RADICAL REFORMS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 92, 13 January 1919, Page 6

RADICAL REFORMS

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTE'S PROPOSALS .. IMPORTANT PRINCIPLES DISCUSSED The "Now Zealand Educational Institute on Saturday resumed the discussion of motions, originally drafted by the.executive.'as proposed amendments to the Education Act. Members of the executive introduced the motions. Extension of School Age. Mr.F. T. Evans moved"That in order to' make for greater efficiency both. .ini. the:'individual', and in the . State, it is imperative that compulsory education be extended'to sixteen years of ago without exception, financial assistance being given when necessary; further, that between tho ages of sixteen and eighteen there be'compulsory attendance at continuation or vocational classes in daylight hours." Mr. Evans said that unless some such alteration as that proposed above were made in our educational system, . tho masses ..would not bo . equipped to play thoir proper .part in the industrial, and . commercial struggles ,of the world. There was in each nation, v element consisting of people who had been forced to enter tho labour market at fourteen years'of-age, and who , -in.their maturity felt that they were ft. 3effc behind. • Our young peoplo up to sixteen years of age should receive a broad cultural education, and there should be no vocational training before that age. In the past few years thousands of workers Tiad joined worlt- ' ers' educational associations, • hot to acquire manual dexterity or anything * }iad not had the opportunity of broadei> !, : their minds, because they felt that they i; lad not had tho opportuniy of broadening. them in youth. The' resolution , proposed that .between the years of sixteen and eighteen there should ho compulsory continuation classes. The billy objection that could- be raised to IJ ithafc was that parents, might in soma instances suffer hardship; and the oh/y jwtfio.n-was Met. by /the provision in the resolution 'for financial assistance to parents where it jvas necessary. > f Mr.->F: Coleman,■ in .seconding the motion, said that without doubt the most important part of a person's life :. .. Was the period from'the fourteenth to tho eighteenth year; aiid under 'the present system it was just at the critical age of fourteen that children passed ; tout of the teacher's, hands . ■ ■ ■ Mr. W. A. Chirteis said that he was

heartily in'-favour of,tie motion. He ; ! .'would', like, however, to point out that [there might -, be certain difficulties in '• the way of applying to country dis- , triots such a system as that proposed. He hoped'that Mr. Evans in his reply , would deal with tho question.. At;this stage Miss N. E. Coad pointfed out that though the executive had . drafted in their original/ forms, the motions that were being put forward . each matter touched upon was entirely in. the hands of. tho meeting, and the movers of the'motions were''by no, •ineans responsible to the executive for nnv views they-^spressed. Mr. F. A. Garry would have liked ■ to know in what manner'exactly it. was' proposed that children, should spend the proposed extra years of education. That was a i very important consideration.! ; .

, Mr. F. L. Combs' said that unless f.ho schools were going to be considerably broadened in their work, and: unless, the work was going to be much More vitalised than it was at present, he (Jid not think that any extension of the school age would greatly benefit the community. If the' schools' remained as : at; present, it''was; likely that" confinement of oliildren in them: from the asp of sixteen to. the age of. eighteen would breed just that /i-ype of dissatisfaction of tho masses which a previous speaker .had spoken of.- Even at the. a ?°. ten tliore should he provision for giving tho children- some knowledge of human nature and for putting them in touch with the operations of the ("immunity outside the school. Something ■more, should be done in direction iftian "the holding of school -excursions and the. paying of visits to gasworks." _ Mr. Just ( said that the' tendency in the past was to train children to' bo

! :..- Wage-earners, 1 but the tendency, of . M-day, .was; to make ..children : human f j -beings and pood citizens; It was in | •-£ tfa.ftigheat-interests; of.State that ; each individual should feel himself or j " iherSelf in 'a position to achieve betteri , ■ ment. '. Thci fate of the proposals conl tained in the resolution it was not for p such a body .as the institute to decide r . Upon a basis of cost: The work of the institute was to point oiit what was • talisolutely necessary. It was the j ■ politician who would have to find the means, of bringing about. tho required 4 reforms at once or of so changing conv ®^™s a as',.to'make the reforms possible .. M-'the ftitnrbl , -'/Miss.-Chaplin ; said" that if it were . made possible for -teachers to keep, the children, up-to tlio age of sixteen and [ over, it would bo necessary to revise the-curriculum from the bottom up-, i. .wards. ..'All.■■the difficulties .'that had. | 'heon mentioned were iust for the instij tute to surmount ans not to bow to. J The Child. First. j.' ', ,Mr. de Berry, insisted that tho aim of educational reform to-day' was to j put the child first—to fit the ■ course j '.to the child as it had never before been j fitted.' Once the course was so ad- ! justed, there could be no opposition to | . . an extension of the school age. It was j;. - extremely dangerous for the State ever j to allow the young to go forth withj out having their judgment properly de." ; veloped. At present many of the young I went out to become citizens j without having any knowledge of pollj tics or economics. .In consequence of | ■ their ignorance, they fell a prey to the j .'■•• arguments, of agitators, whose fallacies f they were'tillable to detect; and in a L / few years they were members of that } class which was a source; of -unrest to i the community. ' ! Mr. Combs moved an amendment of j . th» motion: "That from - tho ago of } ; fourteen to the ago of twenty-one, it j be compulsory for-adolescents to atL ; , tend continuation, school for- three Months annually." i' The amendment was not seconded, f . . ' The motion was carried.

Courses of Study. - Mr. de Berry , opened tho, discussion upon reform in coursep of study. He ■ .moved: "That the Education Board shall .provide a continuous and co-or-dinated study from the kindergarten ',to the age of eighteen. This course shall be divided into tho following stages: (a) Kindergarten and preparatory). .(b) junior, (c) Benior, and shall provide 'for the necessary differentia.tion along the literary and social aspects of culture or along tho social and technical side." " The mover believed that tho courses of the past had had no relation to the growing demands of the child, and no relation to the position of the child as a unit in the social life of the community. Education should bo regarded as, and made to be, one continuous process, with no more break in passing from the kindergarten to the junior stage, or from the junior to the senior stage, than then, was now in passing: from StandnjcJ I to Standard 11, or from Standatf* lH to Standard IV; i ""Moreover, the foremost itfea in •the education of a boy should bo to make, him a man first, and a workman -afterwards. _ Mr. F. A. Garry seconded the motion, and in doing so drew attention

to tho" following remit, which he said represented the view of tho Hawke's Bay branch upon the subject under discussion: "That the time has arrived when the education system of the Dominion should bo remodelled, and that following should be provided for in such reconstruction: The closer co-or-dination of education in its various branches—kindergarten, primary, technical, secondary, and university; remodelling of syllabus to enable a fivefold system to be adopted in place of present three; increased attention to tho physical welfare of . tho child by coordination of those branches—physical exercise, medical attention, sanitation, and structure of buildings—teaching of human physiology including sex physiology ; increased prominence to the subject of citizenship and moral obligations." Mr. Garry considered that Jhe agreement between the motion and the remit was sufficient to .warrant him, as a Hawke's Bay delegate, on seconding the motion as it stood. Tho motion was carried.

Mr. do Berry moved, with the object, ho said, of opposing the multiplication "of certificates, that leaving certificates should be issued on completion of the school course, and that all other certificates should be transfer certificates, showing clearly " the class of school which the holder was qualified to enter. The motion was carried. Continuation Classes. At the afternoon session Miss Coad. moved: "That subject to regulations, all young persons' shall attend such continuation.classes at such times, and on such days, as the educational authority of the area in which they reside may require for three hundred and twenty hours in each year, or such .number of hours as the authority, having regard to all the circumstances, considers reasonable.".

Referring to the attitude of the Employers' Federation towards tho above proposal, Miss Coad said that she might quote to'the federation the message that Cromwell once sent to the Scottish Parliament: "I beseech you, by the mercies of God, to consider that sometimes you may bo wrong." The suggested reform might cause inconvenience at first, but it would bring it-.v advantages ;later on even to those who now opposed it. . Continuation classes would flourish best under local control, but the National Board could see that illiberal vocational training was avoided. The speaker touched upon the work ,that. could be done .by the classes in training for vocation, -"training for leisure," and training for citizenship. The education for .girls, ■ said Miss Coad, must be as liberal as that for* boys. 1 Mr. W. Eudey said that lie was glad_ that the . previous speaker had considered as important , the question of "training for leisure." ' Tho State would benefit considerably if. young people were educated • in the profitable use of their leisure time. It was explained before the motion was put that the "young, persons" referred to ill the motion were persons jvho had finished,their primary courses. The motion was carried. Administration. ,

Mr. Just opened the discussion upon proposed reforms in administration. He moved: "That in lieu of the present nine education boards there shall be appointed a .National Board of Edition, and that local educational authorities be constituted to take the place of school committees." '

In a national system of education, be said, lijy ihe safety of democracy. What was required was a broader education of the masses from a humanistic point of view. The overlapping that had taken place'in tho past must in the. future be avoided. A national system for New Zealand had of late been somewhat threatened bv the encroachments.'of certain bodies.' These bodies could not in a democratic country ..be forbidden to compete. But the institute should; aim at the establishment of such a national system as would | render 'competition impossible. At present the country had a great multiplicity of Educational controlling authorities,' viz., 1 the Council of Education, high school boards, technical school boards, education boards, school committees, - kindergarten , associations, the Education Department,, and the Minister of Education. It wa« a sort of go-as-you-please, because each of ,the controlling bodies was as a watertight compartment, largely shut off from tho rest. The'present, system was one that was set up to meet conditions prevailing forty years ago, and it was now sufficiently antiquated to make way for some new system. The functions of the education, hoards of tho Dominion' 'had, till been taken away from them, and that was the proof that the boards wye' not considered adequate to, the exercise of their former functions. -. The .tendency to-day was towards tho centralisation of education in the Education Department, but this centralisation, in the speaker's opinion',, would not answer well.. What the institute should aim at -was something, thnt was partly decentralisation. Mr. Just/quoted a number of opinions upon the imnortanco of 'having local governing bodies in education. "It was essential." in the words of one writer, "that tho local educational authorities should make 5 full use of their powers to sur-vey-the total needs of the areas for which they were responsible and to take sucli measures as would promote systematic development within those areas of all- appropriate forms of education." The status of tho. education boards to-day placed, members-in' a position where they were unable to do what it Vas expected of them. _If tho boards were to be the controlling authorities their functions should be much larger than the deciding of how many bricks should go to\ a wall, or how many slates to a roof. In tho resolution it was proposed that a national board of experts, not under the Department, should be established to control education in the Dominion. The board should be made "p of men whoso time and -'energies would be devoted solely to the cause of education. To see to the co-relation and co-ordination of education in the Dominion, to keep education up to' ,date, and to control the local authorities, would give a board .of experts work that would -keep them occupied weekly from Monday morning to Saturday night. , • •

The Local Authority. Mr. Just next passed on to tho more detailed consideration of local administration and . the reforms he considered desirable in this department. It was proposed to sweep away the school committees and to substitute for tliem certain hodies which he would call the local education authorities. The schools could bo grouped under these authorities, and under them it would be possible for the schools to supply in rural districts quite as great facilities for education as were supplied in urban areas, There would be groups of, schools having a community of interest, under authorities having a complete system of education. The question of constitution was the knottiest . problem that arose .in this connection. Among tlie, possible systems ifns one under which the local civil authority would be the parent body of tlie education committee.

Before the motion was dismissed the conference adjourned till this morning.