SCHOOL BURSARIES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 54, 1 September 1943, Page 4

SCHOOL BURSARIES

COUNTRY CHILDREN

Bursaries of an annual value of £40 are to be provided next year to enable country children who have passed the school certificate examination to spend one or two years in the sixth form of a postrprimary school. The Minister of Education <Mr. Mason) said last night that regulations were being drafted, and as soon as they were gazetted a further announcement would be made setting out the exact conditions under which the bursaries would be granted and advising country parents what steps to take to obtain them for thei* children. !

The smaller district high school, with a staff of only one or two, or at the most five or six teachers, said the Minister, could not provide the same instruction in advanced subjects' for sixth form pupils that, was available in the large post-primary schools. The problem of -the country child would be accentuated next year with the introduction of accrediting for entrance to the university. It was unlikely that every district high school would be placed on the list of schools approved for accrediting by the university, and the new university entrance examination to be taken by pupils who were not accredited would be- at a higher standard than the present examination, though j in only three subjects. The new bursaries were planned to meet this situation by enabling country pupils to have all the advantages of a one or two years' course in .the sixth form of any State secondary, technical, combined, or district high school on the list of schools approved for accrediting. Not only would this, be of great help to prospective university entrants from country districts, but it,/ would also free the smaller district" ■ high schools to devote more attention to the needs of the remaining country - children who did not intend to go on to * the university. •;