SECONDARY SCHOOLS CONFERENCE.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 May 1926, Page 1

SECONDARY SCHOOLS CONFERENCE.

[llY -TELEGRAPH PER PRESS ASSOCIATION. I WELLINGTON, May 26. lion R. A. Wright, Minister of Education, addressed the annual conference of the Secondary Schools Association to-day, making his first public appearance since his appointment. He said that he had already learned the portfolio bristled with difficulties, and he was going to go cannilv, the more so since an expert lmd said yesterday that they did not know where they were going. Ono great problem was the number of children going into secondary education, as the result ol' its being free. He feared that the effect would he congestion of professions. Barents were anxious that their children should not have to toil as the parents did, and tho problem was who was going to do the other work? To toil. In saying this, he said, he was not saying one word against education. He believed in it. There were many vacancies for artisans in New Zealand hut they could not he got. Ho understood that in Germany, educated people were to he found at manual work.

Referring lo his relations with the teachers, Mr Wright said that they would always find him ready to put his cards on the table, and they would always know where he stood. OUTSPOKEN CRITICISM. WELLINGTON, May 17. Mr W. A. Armour. 'President of the Secondary Schools Association in ail address at the Association conference made some pointed references to wliat he termed self complacency, into which teachers in New Zealand had deluded themselves instead of being, ns they had flattered themselves / :imong ■the leaders of education in the world. The profession in the Dominion was really lagging hell inti. “We have come to see we are far from knowing all that it to he known about education. The time is here for well-planned investigations into our system as it exists, and as it ought lo he. We begin to realise we are behind Britain in many respects.” They have been told to embark on experimentation but such a course is hampered by the many requirements of an existing curriculum and the necessity for devoting a. largo amount of attention to the subjects appertaining to various examinations. Experimentation to-day was striving to explore the aptitudes and capacities of our young people, in a way never attempted before, so assisting a hoy or a girl to develop capabilities along the best lines. Much excellent work is being done in schools already teaching was more lively, school was capturing parents and impressing the employer," who has been wont to regard higher schoool education ns too bookish. If it had been bookish it was largely the fault of the employer, who was tlio principal taxpayer because the cheaper form of education was the bookish one. “ Let us combine to bring about conditions giving greater liberty in our schools for the; develop-, ment along lines which might not be narrowed unduly by the incubus of rather unsuitable examination prescriptions.”

Dr Mavsden, Assistant-Director of Education agreed that be. like other educational authorities, was somewhat at a loss to know just where education in New Zealand was drifting. He believed the storm centre was the curriculum which should change with the advanced requirements of education, and should alter also with amendments of the whole system. There was a tendency to lag behind the actual requirements. “ I find it difficult to say wliat the aim of education is, for there is a different aim for every child. With the advent of the junior high schools, the requirements of the curriculum would again be altered. AYhat they needed was the introduction of reason into the curriculum of high schools.