THE EDUCATION SYSTEM

Hokitika Guardian, 20 July 1929, Page 8

THE EDUCATION SYSTEM

(Otago Daily Times.) The desirability of alterations it the present system of education was the subject df a reference in tin Speech delivered by the Governor General at the opening of Parliament and it was intimated that, in view o the dependence of New Zealand upoi the great primary industries, the Government intended to give to the State system that agricultural bias of which the Minister spoke a good deal durin; the recess. It was also stated that consolidation—presumably, grouping—of schools -would be introduced ii country districts,jdud that a vocationa piidance officer would be appointed t<link school work with the work of tin circumambient world of affairs. To enable the education authentic to translate these proposals into con Crete form the- Minister of Education is to set up a select committee on tin whole subject to take evidence from the farming, technical, industrial, air professional groups o'f New Zealand society. The- appointment of stili another committee upon education may come as a surprise to the- public since it might be supposed that there had been sufficient activity of that nature, both of Government committees and other committees, in recent •■ears, and that the example of Great “ritain alone, together with the re ports already issued by committee? here, would be quite enough to ein■'oldcn the Minister to bring forward his definite proposals.

Still, if there must be another com mittee, let it be of the type hinted af n-the Governor’s Speech—a committee almost, if not quite wholly, eom•tosed of men and women not directly engaged in ted u cat ion. It seems io ,1a inevitable that education in our rapidly changing modern life should lie frequently overhauled, for it is only an usvrumuiit of society, and as society’? .lemnnds so tlio instruinont which society uses must lie changed oi .uust he put to different uses. With out such overhauling education may o-asily become static, stagnant, and out of touch with life needs, as so many assert it is at present.

For tiiis reason there is a growing feeling that society should say wluu t wains and that the educators should carry this out. if the Minister can get a representative committee, partially or wholly excluding professional teachers, to say decisively’ what kinds of schools tin New' Zealand people want, and if this committee can carry authority not only with the Ministry hut with the great majority of the people at large, then the educationist may he called in to see that the scheme is to he carried out.

Educationists necessarily think in terms of education, as a lawyer thinks in terms of law. Society must speak either through Parliament or in this case through a committee to be set lip by the Ministry. When that is decided there is another difficulty. The Minister of Education has repeatedly declared that, as our primary industries are so vital to the Dominion, an agricultural bias must he given to the education system. The total breadwinners in this country number about 570,000, and df these about 140,000 — say, one quarter only'—are engaged in agricultural and pastoral pursuits. 1.1 is a dangerous proceeding to give the whole of our education a bias in one direction.

This is the most serious problem to be faced in the education question. If agriculture is stressed in our school it will obviously and inevitably have more time and care allotted to it in country’ schools. The country dweller may then find that his boys and girls through being educated towards agriculture, are handicapped or even prevented from passing the examinations necessary for entering upon professional courses. The simple fact is, as investigation in any' country' school will prove, that a considerable proportion of its boys and girls do not when they leave school, go back to tne land.

It is not likely that New Zealand will adopt a herioc policy like that advocated by G. K. Chesterton’s “Outline of Sanity” and return to small holdings and the village life with a concomitant abandonment of the city. Nor, to take an actual example, is it likely that this country will renounce her traditional methods and adopt tiie methods of Denmark, where in some districts the schools are closed, or partially closed, for months at a time .while the children are helping their parents in the work on the Ifarm. Farm and school have a traditional association in Denmark that they have not in New Zealand. The experiment that is being tried in Cambridgeshire, England, in junior and senior schools and a village college is also unlikely to he adopted here. But there is certainly the need—and in this Mr Atmore is right—to bring the instruction imparted to the pupils into more definite relation with tinoccupations of the country as a whole not with one occupation only, nor with the country in the rural sense, hut with all the main occupations of the whole country. Besides what is being done in England and Denmark, there is a rich field for observation o f actual schemes in Switzerland and America—and even Russia. If the Ministry is intent on a really radical alteration and is in dead earnest over this matter, why not do what other countries'do and send the Director of Education abroad with a commission to bring hack a report and propose a definite scheme?

Of course, if the propositions put forward are the conventional political “hot air” which has, unfortunately rather stifled the electors’ appreciation of political sincerity then no committee nor any foreign pilgrimage of the Director of Education is called for; let us go on in the old way, with the same old platitudes, the same old hollowness, the growing indifference ol the public, lint if there is a sincere intention to give this country the kind —not the kinds—of education that will get the best both out of our natural and human resources, , then a committee of high standing should be appointed and also the Director should be sent abroad, so that on his return he iiinv reallv direct.