INDIFFERENCE AND NEGLECT SEEN

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 257, 29 July 1942, Page 6

INDIFFERENCE AND NEGLECT SEEN

Headmaster’s Charge

JEOPARDIZING CHANCES OF PUPILS

"In a spirit of exasperation I refer to the policy of apparent neglect and indifference ’which at the present time governs our system of education. A staff and headmaster can make adjustments to circumstances only within a limited field. The headmaster may have to adjust and compromise when the call for men is made; he may have to content himself with fewer amenities and less material for his sch’ool; but the time inevitably comes when the limit is reached, when the education of the children begins to suffer and we find a generation growing up on whom the effects of war conditions liegin to tell,” said the principal of llongotai College, Mr. F. M. Renner, in a 'protest to the Wellington College Board of Governors yesterday about the shortage of staff and the state of the school grounds. "I think it is high time that the manpower committee realized that if a man is called up he may quite conceivably be making a greater contribution to the war effort by remaining in his job as a teacher than he would be making by being drafted into the armed forces,” Mr. Renner continued. Reporting on the present position at the school, he said: “This school has been particularly heavily hit by the call on manpower; 17 masters in 19 months have left, two of them key men. I am now threatened with the loss of another two key men and if they go then the chances of matriculation of some 70 boys will be jeopardized. Education and War Effort.

"The whole is a sorry story—a classic example of blindness to the well-known fact that during wartime education of the best kind and of the right kind is an indispensable adjunct to the war effort. Unless we give these children of ours every facility for physical, mental, moral and spiritual development, how do we expect them to undertake the task that is' bound to fail on their shoulders—not on ours—that of postwar reconstruction? Win the war by all means, but let us beware lest in reducing education to a wholly subservient position we lose the peace.” “If the Government wants us to keep to the. curriculum, it must help us,” said Mr. L. McKenzie, advocating that the board should appeal for all key teachers. He added that in England no married teacher could be called up for service. The chairman, Mr. W. V. Dyer, said that each case should be treated' on its merits, but thought that there would be a change in the oflicial policy in the near future or many more schools- throughout the country would be closed.

Several members pointed out that retired teachers were reluctant to return because a certain sacrifice of their superannuation was involved.