EDUCATION OUTLOOK

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue CXXIII, 10 April 1937, Page 10

EDUCATION OUTLOOK

TEACHERS FORTIFIED

WORTH IN COMMUNITY

TRIBUTE TO MINISTER

(From "The Post's" Representative.) WANGANUI, This Day.

The present outlook in regard to education was discussed by Mr. F. L. Combs, M.A., president of the New Zealand Educational Institute, in an address he gave to the Wanganui branch of the institute'last evening. .

The N.Z.E.I. as a whole, Mr. Combs I said, had no political affiliations and was very careful not to form any. Its testimony had for this reason the value of impartiality. He had no hesitation in saying, that throughout the ranks'of the primary service there was keen appreciation of what the present Government had done for the service. The depression had, so to speak, been a killing frost. * The sap of aspiration, without which the education system was lifeless, had been driven into the roots. People in the schools felt to a. very great extent that they were carrying on to await better days. DEPARTMENT'S CO-OPERATION. Thpse better days came with the advent of the present Government. In the first place the present Minister of Education showed uncommon insight into educational problems, ; and placed a definite and high value on education as a social service. To be thus understood was in itself; a great encouragement to working teachers. Under Mr. Fraser the Education Department had worked along lines of sympathetic cooperation with teachers and their representative body. No one connected with the system had any doubts as to who ultimately was making the decisions, but it was also felt that along lines that made for progress,- fairness to all classes of teachers, and to individual teachers, there was; so to speak, in- the Ministerial office a court of equity that was never closed. The speaker did not hesitate to say that the Ministerial attitude had added to the dignity of the profession, because it fortified teachers in.a sense with the social worth of what they were doing. Over and above this it was felt that education had got out of-reverse. . ; SALARIES AND STAFFING. In regard to progressive issues such as anew scheme of salaries, text books, etc., teachers found the controlling authorities prepared to take the initiative, said Mr. Combs. Bound up' with salaries were problems of staffing stability which all' school, committees knew to be chronic. . These could only be solved by the payment of salaries on a different'basis. The long overdue move was now being made in the direction of altering that basis. In' other respects the institute had found that where it urged a progressive policy its. suggestions were not only met with1' keen scrutiny, buti in a spirit quite as progressive as their own. The political, fortunes- of the present Government were not a matter for discussion by the N.Z.E.1.,; but very definitely there was a growing feeling among teachers that the fate of a decided advance in regard ■to the quality and quantity of education given to the children of the Dominion was bound up- with that, of the present administration of education, which he did not hesitate'to characterise as both enlightened and sound. BOLD INITIATIVES NEEDED. Big, even bold, initiatives were needed in pur education system, Mr. Combs added. Apart from what he might almost term "feeble, delusive thaws," there had been no such bold ,renovation . and: modernisation of our New Zealand system.' Comparison with what was being done overseas clearly indicated that this was needed if the system was to be kept abreast of the needs of an exacting era. Every educationist would hope that the present promise of performances would not, owing to'political vicissitudes, end up in a stale-mate. : .'/•'■

Another article dealing with the meeting of the institute appears on page 13. ' - -: