THE EDUCATION YEAR

Hokitika Guardian, 5 September 1930, Page 2

THE EDUCATION YEAR

MINISTER’S REPORT

CHANGES IN SYLLABUS

WELLINGTON, Sept. 3

The year’s activities in the realm of education are reviewed in the annual report of the Minister lor Education winch was presented in the House to-day. Interesting extracts from the.report are as follows: ,lu the sphere of primary oducacatjon a new syllabus came into operation at the beginning of tiie year and was intended by my Department to bring the instruction given in the schools into closer relation with the actualities of life. In form the syllabus does not differ greatly from its predecessors of 1904 and 1919. I» spirit, however, there is a marked difference inasmuch as the present syllabus allows teachers as much freedom as they are ready and competent to take to organise their teaching in any way that most appeals to them. Such freedom must of course be subordinated to the true progress of the pupils and it must always be the duty of headmasters and inspectors to make sure that the teacher , uses his freedom wisely. ,Instructions have, however, been issued to the inspectors to allow a full measure of freedom to all teachers who are competent enough to use it wisely. I aril well ’ aware of the criticism not infrequently made of the New Zealand school system that it tends to be too rigid and I have repeatedly expressed , a desire that where a departure from the well-beaten track laid down by tradition appears likely to be advantageous every encouragement should lie given to the teacher who 'is capable of introducing new meth- | ods, either of teaching or of school organisation. The new syllabus stresses the importance of character training, and this phase of the teacher’s work is 1 receiving ever-increasing attention. Teachers are now realising, how road--1 ily all the subjects of instruction can be made to serve the major object of ’ development of character iin ts broad-

est sense

LINKING UP

'l n the new syllabus a beginning has been made to link up more closely the primary and the post-primary schools. While it must always be recognised that the first duty of the primary schools is to lav the .foundations of education firmly apd surely, it is also important that the instruction, should not be divorced from the secondary or the technical school curricula.' For many years there existed a marked cleavage between the secondary schools and the technical schools, but the distinction was never so slightly marked as at the present time, when we find an ever-lncreas-ijio; desire on the part of the secondary school teachers to provide a much broader curriculum than formerly. The conviction has grown that for many, children it is waste of time to engage on purely academic, studies, and consequently there is an everincreasing demand in secondary schools for manual training equipment. In several of the secondary schools, too, an excellent course in agricultural science is provided. It is evident, then, that in New Zealand post-primary schools will soon be of one main type, namely, schools providing purely academic courses for the few and broadly cultural courses with a leaven of manual training for the majority. One or more of such schools will necessarily be set apart ifor advanced technical instruction, but this is likely to he the only distinction, in the future. During the year a Select Parliamentary Committee was appointed by the House to enquire into the education system, and to bring down a report and recommendation for improvement. It is confidently anticipated that as a result of the searching investigations that have been made important changes will he made bearing particularly on the inter-re-lation of primary, secondary, and technical schools.

ACCREDITING SYSTEM. Considerable attention was, given duing the year both by the University and by the Department to the question of accrediting pupils for University entrance. The majority of members of the Senate appeared to favour the system as being less liable to error than the present selection of candidates by a written examination outside the schools. The University considered that certain safeguards were necessary, and finally decided to postpone the adoption of the system until further investigation had been made to ascertain how accrediting for matriculation was viewed by other Universities and by other examining bodies concerned. The Department is definitely of the opinion that the external examination for University entrance has had an unhealthy influence on the secondary schools, inasmuch as it has dominated not only the curriculum, but the very methods of teaching. The removal of such an influence cannot but be for good both to pupils and teachers.

leaving certificates

In the meantime the Department is about to introduce the practice of awarding leaving certificates on the basis of partial accrediting by principals, as has been done for some years in connexion with the award