PROGRESS IN EDUCATION.

Hokitika Guardian, 18 May 1920, Page 3

PROGRESS IN ED UCATION.

The appointment of Mr Parr as Minister of Education was generally weij coined because it was believed that in him New Zealand would have a genuinely progressive man at tlio head of the Education Department. That belief will bo strengthened by the comprehensive scheme of educational' reform that he outlined at the Education Conference comments the “Press.” As might .be expected of one wlio has a long and honourable record- of good work on the administrative side of education, Mr Parr is a man of ideas and Ideals, having, moreover, the ability to place them before the people in a shape appealing to the common sense of all who have given any thought to the problem of the best methods of applying, education to modern requirements. Is is true that the basic educational requirements of a people remain unchanged from generation to generation. They are that the teaching that a .child received shall expand and discipline his mind, develop > his power of thought, direct him in the paths of mental culture, and fit him for his life’s work. No system of education is complete that does-not comply with, all these requirements. But from generation to .generation the best means o( obtaining these results undergo inevitable change, because education is not a fixed but an ever-developing science, and because of the constantly changing conditions, of daily life. The education system that answered its purpose in earlier years in New Zealand is how out of date, in spite of the amendments that it has.undergone,* and the Dominion is ready to-day for the more scientific methods which Mr Parr briefly described. These are not wholly new.. The proposal 'that the primary course should end at the age of 12 years, has, for instance, been discussed by educationists at intervals for some time past. Mr Parry however, is the, first Minister, so .far as we know, to put forward an outline plan for preventing the undoubted waste of valuable time which occurs in the schpol life of many children after they reach the age of 12. The’Minister proposes that after that age, by which time, as he said, a. knowledge of the “three R’s’l should - he rooted arid established, a primary school pupil who did not intend to go on to a secondary school should pass into an intermediate central school, stay jng there until Abe ago of 16 or into a secondary school until the. age of 18. Children so situated that they could not attend a central schooj would stay for another two years at a primary school, when their education would presumably be, as far as possible, of a post-elemen-tary character.

Tlie main feature of Mr Parr’s scheme is that (lie purely elementary course should stop at the age of 12 Tlie average child could quite satelj go on to an intermediate or secondary sobbol after passing the fifth, instead of as now, the sixth standard, hut, of course, the secondary school course would have to he altered to meet the change'in the age of entrance. The adoption of the scheme would naturally mean more schools and more tenchei s, and therefore ’greater expenditure, but that should ho no bar to its acceptance, by a community that has in. the past taken pride 1 * in its educational system, and that projesses to have the interests of its children at heart. So far,’ Mr Parr has only roughly sketched out his ideas; many, details will have to he thought out and worked in, before the whole ■ scheme is complete. But the Minister having reached the stage of propounding his scheme of a new educational structure, is not in the least likely to leave it in the air. He recognises, as all must recognise, i the Dominion’s progress is to continu in the right direction, that- an at equato system of education is a more vital need to-day than ever before m the country’s history.