EDUCATION CHANGES

Grey River Argus, 2 June 1943, Page 2

EDUCATION CHANGES

address by director.

WELLINGTON, May 17. "The school system is now being built from the uottom tip. instead ot beam suspended Irani above as in the r>?st ■ =aid Dr E. Beeby, Director of Education, when addressing the CKAi.wi-ence of secondary school teachers held in Wellington. . In the past, he the University bpri made demands on the secondary schools, and tiie secondary schools on the primary schools, as far as stand.ards' of work were concerned. " flclay the primary schools were freed from the proficiency examination, and the secondary school had to take the child at the standard of education received at the primary school. So the secondary school had now to decide what standard of attainment it could reach in a certain number of years with the pupil it received. Dr. Beeby remarked that postprimary education in New Zealand had reached a stage envisaged by one of his predecessors in office, Mr G. Hegben, 1 who was responsible for the creation of the State secondary sukois in New Zealand. We had passed the e:a when the secondary ..n was for the selected few, and cu a . / we had io take stock and. see f vd‘r system was suitable to cater for the considerably increased numceio Aho were seeking education beyond the primary school stage. To-day the secondary school performed two functions, preparing the few for further study at the University and the many for life and for industry.» The high standards of atta'nment of the few must be maintained and "rounded off” courses developed for the many. As far as the university authorities' were concerned the only subject to be made compulsory for their entrants was English and all would agree with this decision. The secondary schools then must decide the kind of selection of subjects they shall permit and the subjects which were desirable in a secondary school course.

Longer Period of Education

Dr Beeby said that a limitation o£ subjects was necessary and this would be done partly by the Department and partly bv the schools themselves. Both would be faced with the task of deciding what was the correct balance between the desires of the child and those of society. The director foreshadowed .the ' possibility of a longer general education for all, particularly now that the school age was being raised by the first step 1.0 15 next year, and to 16..50me time later. ’lt would be reasonable to assume that specialisation could be postponed until later than was the case at present. Thus, allowing for a “common core” of essential sub-

jeots. what kind of syllabus was to be laid down in the future? Each subject in that syllabus-would have two aspects —its treatment for the pupil wljo could continue with it at a stage higher than the secondary school and its treatment for the “rounded off” courses. Here was another of the many problems which must be worked out by the association now.

Again, with large groups of unselected pupils, our methods of control, methods of discinline, and of social well being must be carefully studied and if found wanting modified to meet the changing conditions. Dr Beeby stressed upon the association that its decisions must be made now, and placed the Department and its resources at the disposal of the secondary school teachers in their attempts to work out the future, of their schools.