POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 181, 18 August 1937, Page 9

POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION

Intermediate Schools Not The Solution - MR. PENLINGTON'S VIEWS That the right course to adopt as regards post-primary education was to incorporate it with the senior schools was the opinion expressed by Mr W. A. G. Penlington, principal of the Hastings High School, last evening wlien giving an address on various aspects of education. He pointed out that the secondary schools were already well equipped and pupils would have the advantage of continuity of schooling. Pointing out that at present we wero lieing - faced with a . reorgan'isation ot the educational system, ke said tkat oue of the most important matters in the reorganisation was that of post-primary education. He hoped that the Government liad fully availed itself of tho opportunity offered to obtain competent exptessions of opinion froni • the experts Avho had recently visited Netv Zealand. The question of education in the adolescent age had bcen thoroughly investigated in -England by a highly qualifiod commission. It recommendcd that the stage of II plus on * should bo regafded as the adolescent stage, and the xecommendation exlvisaged only ono stage from the. age of 12 years, the commission contending that thfe children skould receive special tr-eatment from Ihis'age onwards.

,Tne proDiem m i\ew zeaiana, - ne . pointed - out/ was that there was still doubt as to how this should be brpught hboqt. /There wore really threo methoda to adopt. One was to leave the children from 11 yeafs and over at the primary school3 .but have • them as senior classes. The second method was to take them from the priniary schools and pu» them straight to the secondary schools. The third method was to tako them and a separat-e school, such as . an intermediate school. The English System. "The proposal to have standards 5 and 6 taken away and set up os an in. terreipdiate school, is, I think .wrong,'' he said. ""There are no such schools in the English system, which is not, of course, saying that the prpposal ia wrong because of that fact. ' When the children are drafted from the primary school to another school they should stay there until their ' school days are over. There should ' be only two schools — the pnmary ahd post-primary —and not three schools.' ' Mr Penlington contended that experience had showh that wh,ere thero was a ehange there was a certain amounl of waste. ScveTal months. were lost by the pupil in picking up the thread of education again. It had been fopnd'at Waitaki High School, for examplc, that by having the . II plus children incorporated with tjie high/school tho'y made such good progrcss, through the climination of ' waste time, that they ■ actually gained a year iii thcir studics. tfMoreover if that II plus . children are. drafted to the secondary schools they will have the advantage of securing full value of the equipnlent that is already installed at the post-primary scjiools," he said. "It would also bo possible' for the children to be under the oue form. of cpnt.rpl, .and .they would have a comprehensive programme' that would not bo. broken. A well-planned programme could be f ollowed. Then again I feel that it will not'be possiblo to have the same highly qualified teachers* for 'the intermediate schools. It should -be- remembered further that, in the secondary schools, tho specialist takes the whole of the -school in hia or her particular subject. ''It has been. found . that by.incorporating the II plus children with tho senior school that it does give more time for broader education,?' continued-Mi •Penlington. "It has been fPund also that _ thqre is . a greater to.ndency on the part of the children to continue on at. the. school.'.' . v. ...... . .

Breaks in Scbooling.- ~ Other important factors were the tradition of mauy of secondary schools, . tho unity of administrative control, an'd tho unity of professional control, as well as the advisability of malting ono break, and ono only, in tho oducation oi tho child. . - "It has beon suggested that to get pver this difficulty of the break that tho tefm of the intermediate schooJ should bo three years and not two," he said, "With this I would agree, for'it would be better from the viewpoint of the intermediate school, but the effect would be to shorton the period at thesecondary or senior schools. I fear that a good many of the pupils, after three years at the intermediate scliool, would not go on to tbe senior school. ''The right course is to incorporate the intermediate with the senior school/' he said. "I do think that it is in the interests of the- children that this should be done. It has been said that- this would. result in the schools being too big, but the othor parts' of tbe world some of the .schools are 1000 strong. Big schools have certain very important advantages. They allow, for pxample, for tho departmontalisation of the work and for more spocialists. " Mr Penlington made it clcar that he fully appreeiatod that the intermediate schools already established in New Zealand were very well run, and that their headmasters were eminently capable. He was in no way attacking these schools, buf merely the-prineiplb involved, or rather the method adopted to give effect .to . the principle of. postprimary education. . . "After all the only thing that matters is what is best in the interests and welfare of the- children," he said. "1 feel that tbe advantages of incorporating the intermediate with the senior schools aro such that they are definiteIv in keeping with this aim." \