The Evening Star SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1928. SCHOOL AND WORK.

Evening Star, Issue 19800, 25 February 1928, Page 6

The Evening Star SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1928. SCHOOL AND WORK.

Ai first sight there may not be thought to be much connection between postprimary education and unemployment. But a few moments’ thought will show the connection. It is now well realised that education and industry can no longer be treated in separate watertight compartments. Yet we have nob arrived at anything like a perfect adjustment between the output of the schools at various stages and the needs of commerce, industry, and the professions. One curious result of the unemployment problem in Great Britain of recent years lias been a provision in last year’s amendment to the insurance Act, by which classes may bo started and some measure of special education given to unemployed youths and maidens who are a charge on the public funds. The question hero immediately presents itself: If there is no work for them, why should they ever have left school P In England, however, there is not yet sufficient room in high schools or technical schools for all who have free places, though a position like this shows Hie need of providing it. It would be interesting to have figures to show what the result of the recent depression and wave of unemployment has been on the postprimary schools of the dominion, where practically all may have free higher education. To begin with, there seems a good deal of evidence accumulating to show that there is not at present work for all those children who, leaving the primary schools, seek for it. We are constantly reading complaints concerning the lack of positions for apprentices in various trades, for which both the employers and the unions have in various quarters been blamed. Nor has any perfect liaison yet been worked out between the technical and high schools, and the ago at which apprentices are taken on in the workshop. As the result, moreover, of a special inquiry instituted in Auckland by a committee under the auspices of the university and the Chamber of Commerce it appears that there is an appreciable excess of applicants for jobs this year over the number of jobs available, and that this exxess is greater than in most years. A questionnaire was submitted to primary and secondary schools within the city and suburbs, and another to leading employers of juvenile labor. An attempt was made to find out what the boys and girls leaving school wished to do, and to correlate this with the possible openings in various trades and vocations. One striking result was the revelation of the fact that an analysis of the employment status of lads leaving a certain leading secondary school at the end of 1927 showed that approximately onethird had no definite prospects of and would probably find considerable difficulty in finding posts. The committee therefore urges parents to keep boys and girls at school as long as possible, while awaiting suitable posts, where the economic position of parents makes this possible, in preference to tbeir taking up unsuitable “ stop-gap ” occupations or waiting in idleness till something turns up. This will spread the number of appli> cants over the' year and hold out better prospects of absorption as trade improves. There is no need yet for parents to get so panic-stricken over the dearth of employment as has happened in a northern town, where a boy who had started at a high school on a Mon-

day was removed to a job on a Friday, lest no oilier should ever turn up. The decision to leave boys at school has apparently been made in the case of the Otago Boys' High School, as, according to figures submitted at the recent meeting of the Board of Governors, the roll number was higher than ever before. The older boys were staying on, and quite as many younger boys as usual were coming across from the primary schools, in .the Otago Girls’ High School, curiously enough, this was not the case. As a result of hard times, lack of teaching openings, the difficulty of placing girls with high school education in employment, and changes in the commercial course the roll has been reduced. Most of the high schools in the country districts and small towns wore experiencing low roll numbers towards the end of last year. As a result of the depression labor on the farms was often dispensed with, children in their teens from the high Schools taking its place. This must have been quite a factor in increasing the ranks of the unemployed. This, though probably unavoidable, is rather to be deplored. The advice from Auckland is certainly a better policy where it is possible. The wider question of the definite applicability of technical and other postprimary education to the trades and professions has recently been the subject of a report in Great Britain by a committee representative of schools, colleges, professional and other associations, education authorities, and teachers. With it is presented a further report collated by the Federation of British Industries. Two mail! points are made: (a) If the utmost value is to be obtained from tho money which is spent on technical education it is essential that a much more intimate liaison be established between those responsible for the technical education of workers in industrial life; and (b) it is undesirable to ask for further Government help until this linking up has been made, which would eradicate many of the existing weaknesses and at the same time extend tho field of technical education to rover the whole technique of industrial and commercial life. We do not think that this has ever really been done in New Zealand, though it may have been attempted piecemeal. The interest that has lately been shown by such bodies as tho various chambers of commerce in making inquiries into economic, social, and educational questions is a very welcome sign of an alertness to the general welfare of the community beyond the narrow lines of commerce. Perhaps they could undertake further inquiry as to the educational needs of the various professions, the value of technical school training in relation to the work actually done later on in the workshops, and the extent to which so-called commercial education helps a candidate towards efficiency in tho work of the office. We spend a great deal of money in New Zealand on post-primary education, and it would be good to feel assurance that it is all well spent. This is work, too, in which the new Department of Industrial Research might co-operate with tho Education Department. Returning also to tho question of unemployment, we are now surely thoroughly awake to the danger of having “ the poor always with us” in the form of a constant percentage of unemployed, like the 20 per cent, surprisingly revealed in a cable from the United States this week, and like the experience of Great Britain since tho Great War. The deeper causes and less showy remedies must therefore be studied. One factor is undoubtedly this care to see that the growing boy and girl hud a suitable place in tho complex of industrial life, and not merely a blind alley job. If this is done and a close watch is kept on immigration there are reasonable hopes that as the years pass by there need be none unable to find work for their hands to do in the varied industries and occupations of the country.