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Hokitika Guardian, 28 August 1922, Page 2

Thk c. untry is naturally very proud of its education system, even though the cast is very high. The Budget indicated that for last financial year the cost had totalled £3,526,000. as compared with £1,420,000 in 1913-1914. The increase for the past eight years lias therefore lieen 148 per cent. In these times of stringency it would appear that the system should struggle along on three millions and a half more nr less comfortably. The trouble about our education system is that the faddist is allowed a good deal of free play, and no doubt much of the 148 per cent increase can he laid at the door of the faddists. The faddist is not b.v any means extinct, and the last thing he thinks about it ways and means. When oiK' reads of tlie head of an important Department such as Education proposing new departures, one would naturally expect the officer to hare a concrete proposal founded on a solvent basis. But according to a report published last week, dealing with Mr Onnghley’s proposals for junior high schools, wheii pressed for information as to the cost of the scheme, he gave the remarkable reply that it was not possible to go into the cost of a scheme of ten years hence, hut that if the change was desirable the cost would have to be provided by some means! A remarkably irresponsible statement for so highly placed a public officer, and if all the public departments are directed on such lines, no wonder the expenditure is mounting up at a 'tremendous rate and Mr Massey is at his wits ends to find money to keep things

going. Of course many things in life are desirable, but it is necessary in , most walks of life to have money available to purchase the good things. M, Caughley’s training must be superfine to be in the special position he occu- ; pies, but surely some thing is missing ’ when h e takes up such an irresponsible attitude in .regard to the large expenditure to be faced to finance the scheme . he has in mind. t ’ __

As to the scheme itself it seems to be beyond the means of the country, and till it can be financed in a reasonable j way it will be quite possible to get j along without it. The scheme of junior I high schools is likely to result in a I very great cost, and there is no doubt j by elaboratng the District High School system, that satisfactory results could be attained without going to the enormous expenditure which the establishing of a fresh branch of education would incur. The great defect to our mind in regard to the scheme, is that it is prpposed under the scheme, to curtail the primary course at the fourth standard when the pupils are but 11 or 12 years of ago. There has been - far too much tinkering to our way of thinking already with tho primary course. The children should have the best foundation possible in the three R’s, without all the “extras” which now are crowded into the week’s work. At the pribposed ages the scholars are just beginning to take a sensible view of their scholastic tasks, and to switch them off from solid primary work to vo. cational instruction would bo a calamity. All children are not moulded alike and the average child is not brilliant. At the fourth standard they begin to do work which will be. of value to them in after life, and that is the very time when the system should take advantage of the opening mind and impart the fullest instruction in the most practical way possible. It would be a calamity to our way of thinking if the primary course is’to be seriously dislocated at the fourth standard stage, and as the matter is of the greatest importance to all, we should like to seo all the school committees considering the matter with a full regard for what is host for the children and making public this deliberate judgment on what is one of the most important matters yet brought m up educationally.