CORRESPONDENCE.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 October 1928, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

1 PROGRESS IN EDUCATION. 5 } !> i \ i-. -' (To the Editor.) , Sir,’—l have been directed by the ’Executive of the New Zealand Educational Institute to ask your assiststance in drawing the attention of the -public to the importance of the present 'juncture in its bearings upon the progress df education in this Dominion. 'The immediate occasion of this letter is the reference to the subject in tire election manifesto issued by the Prime Minister. The Executive regards the paragraph devoted to education as regrettably meagre and discouraging. In almost every other country in. the world the present time is witnessing great forward steps in the development of national powers through the education of the young; and it has been officially announced in the Education Gazette that a re-organisation of the education system is intended in the immediate future ; yet no indication is

given in the .manifesto as‘. to what direction swell re-organisation is to take, yy .

Certain aspects of education call Ifor especial attention at this time of reconstruction. Not all of them can be dealt with in the scope of a single letter. Some of them, however, are so pressing as to compel attention. Smaller Classes. —Perhaps the' most important of them all is the further pursuit of the policy of smaller classes. Much has already been done, but real education, the development of individuality and the evoking of possibilities of will and skill cannot be effectively carried on with classes of the present numbers. Too much economy in this direction is the worst kind of material waste.

THE SCHOOL AGE. Of equal, if not greater, importance is the raising of the school age. Nearly every other country is doing it, and provision for it Imp been embodied in our own Education Act for many years. It only needs an Order-in-Council to bring this long-needed reform into

oi oration. Until it is done, education cannot be carried to the paying point. Many, if not most, of those "young people who leave school at or before the fourteenth year, are deprived of instruction and of the formative influences of school just at tbe time when these are most needed and most lively to be fruitful in permanent results.

CO-ORJR NATION. No re-organisation of the education system can bo satisfactory that does not provide for the co-ordination of the several sections of educational effort into a single system under a single local control. The system of watertight compartments—primary, secondary, technical—is out of date. Education ■ is a ,life-process, single and continuous, but various according to the nature of the individual. A. unified control admitting of variety of courses, —that is the modern l ideal; hut it can never he attained while schools and pupils are divided up into different sections each under its own Board, ploughing its own little furrow in

blissful disregard of what is being done in the next field. ' v

\D A! INI ST HA TT.O N

Such a system, to give its best, or even to give good results, must be locally administered. Contrary to what has often been said, there is a great, and growing interest in, and demand for education among the people of New Zealand', The proof is to be foilnd in the ini reusing numbers enrolled in the University, the lligli .Schools, tbe Technical Schools ami the Do-Lrici High Schools. But there is no indication that this public interest is to be availed of m tire reorganUalio'.t that has been foreshadowed—rather the reverse. The most effective educational administration can be secured only by utilizing local enthusiasm, local knowledge, local brains, and local pride. An education system cannot be administered efficiently or educationally by the issue of Orders in Council and Regulations and Circulars from a central office table. Such a machine may work, but it will be a svstem of instruction, not of edu-

ration. Education is of the life, and makes its appeal ,-to the life of the people, and can only produce its full fruitage w hen it is rooted in the homes and minds and feelings of the people.

THE COUNTRY CHILD. One olier point must suffice. Tho country child is not getting a fair ch.nice under the present arrangement. School buildings and equipment though improving are in too many cases sadly deficient; the system of payment induces the test teachers to leave the country schools; the country District High Schools, the real glory of the present system, are outside the reach of many promising young people, while money is still being wasted on scholarships for town children who are otherwise provided for.

Other points call for attention, but for the ]>resent enough has been said to show the importance of the issues involved in such a weighty subject as educational reorganisation.—l am etc., H. A. PAHKTNSON. Secretary N.Z.K.i. '■'ellington. Oct. 17th.