EDUCATION IN N.Z.

Hokitika Guardian, 15 December 1930, Page 7

EDUCATION IN N.Z.

SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES.

STORY OF PROGRESS.

ALL-ROUND TRAINING

Education in New Zealand dates back to the earliest days of British settlement. Jt was not until 18/7 however, that a definite step was taken in the direction of formulating a coordinated scheme of education, and in that year was passed.the Education Act—a measure that is the basis of the Dominion’s, educational system to this day.

Until 1904 secondary schools in New Zealand were established by local Acts and in this way the great number of New Zealand secondary schools were constituted. At the present time the provisions of the Education Act, 191/;, permit the Minister of Education to establish such schools. In general the minimum number of prospective, pupils must be sixty in the case of secondary schools, twenty in the case cf the secondary department of a district high school, and forty in the case of a technical high school or a day technical .school.

A junior free place at a secondary school or it technical school is tenable for two yfefifSj With ft 'possible.extension to three yeans, When.held ata district, high school it is tenable for three years, provided that in any case a junior free place may not be held after December 31 of the year in which the holder reaches seventeen years of age. Senior free places are tenable up to the age of nineteen. The Act provides tor the award of a junior and .sepior national scholarship of a monetary value of J 5 and £ls respectively, supplement" ed if necessary by a boarding- allowance of £35 and £SO respectively.

Up till the end of 1919 the greater part of the revenue of technical schools and classes was derived from; capitation payments made by the Government based on the attendances of pupils, and each board of managers oi other .controlling authority was- responsible for the fixing of the salaries of its instructors and the conditions of employment. In 1920, however, the capitation, payments were to ; a great extent abolished, and there was■ substituted a Dominion .system 0f,., classification of technical school teachers and manual training instructors, and a corresponding system of payment of salaries. > ’; TECHNICAL CLASSES. Technical classes, other than those at technical high schools or..technical day schools, were ' held at thirty-eight centres, during 1928, as compartd with forty-one in • the previous year. The total number of, students was 10,963. Students fedeiviilg free education during 1828 at technical Classes other than at technical high -schools o rtecjimcftj day schools numbered 6296. Technical high schools numbered fourteen, ana technical day schools seven m IWB, These schools are 1 of secondary grade and provide industrial, domestic, agricultural, commercial and art classes.

New Zealand’s education for tlie year ended March 31, 1931, totalled £4,138,577, an increase of £175,598 over the expenditure for the previous year. If from the total expenditure is deducted the sum of £443,885 spent on buildings the net amount remaining is £3,964,692 this being equivalent to • £2 10s 2d per head of the'mean population. The expenditure per head of the mean population, exclusive'of expenditure on new buildings, on secondary education was 6s 2d per head of mean population. In 1929, 23,022 pupils, 12,059 beys and 10,963 girls, left public primary schools, 78 per cent, having passed to the sixth standard. Fifty-one- per cent, of the boys and 53 per cent, of girls proceeded to post-primary schools, 20 per cent, of the boys engaged in farming pursulis, and seven per cent, of the boys entered various trades. The number of full-time .teachers on the staffs of the 44 secondary schools jit the .end of 1929 was 657, compared. with' 623 in : 1028. : There were 327 full-time\assistaht- teachers on IW’ staffs. of technical. schools, • besides a large number of,part-time teachers. ' At the beginnng, of the present century education cost the New Zealand taxpayer £519,000 per year, or an expenditure .df 13s 4 per head of population. By 1929 the expenditure was nearly six times as great. ~ increasing cost. The nlilflmd increase of recent, years in the total cost 'of education is due in large measure to ,the increase the numbers receiving -instruction, this being particularly marked in the case of post-primary schools. In the last decade the school population .has made increased expenditure necessary . Ihe purchasing pbwer of money has declined, however, and when this.is taken into consideration the increase in, ie cost of education is not perhaps '-.so great as. a hurried glance at the figures might lead one to believe. -When Parliament established universal elementary education in 1877 as a State function in New Zealand there was never much difference of-opinion ancl in fact there bas not been since as to the essentials of, elementary ediication. An elementary education is generally; accepted; afc ability -to read and comprehend what V, is, read within well understood lipiits . ability to express ideas correctly 1 ; in .oral and written speech, and mastery of, the fundamentals of computation with ability to apply them to the .calculations required in ordinary affairs. It'is at the age of “eleven plus”' that the'question of what to leach arises. When fifth and sixth standards were included in \ the public school course the-.founders -of national education in New . Zealand introduced . a modicum: of secondary education into; the• primary schools. In the category . of. essentially secondary subjects where English, grammar, history, geography and advanced ant imetic as they were taught ill the two higher standards. That this distinction between elementary and secondary education was recognised at the outset is clear because of the fact that compulsory education at first extended onjy to the fourth standard. Eventually compulsory , education was extended to the sixth standard, and about a quarter of a century ago free places at the high schools were substitued. Later the svstem of university bursaries was established and education was nominally free from kindergarten to University.