EDUCATIONAL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5091, 21 February 1927, Page 1

EDUCATIONAL.

INADEQUATE PRIMARY VOTE.

HIGH SCHOOL TESTS TOO LOW.

The primary scnools of New Zealand do not get their Lair share or the money spent on education, in the opinion of the Hon. Mark Colieu, M.L.C., speaking at, Invercargill last week. ’ He stressed the point very strongly that th ■ amount vote ! oj Parliament for the support of primary education was far fioni adequate, propvotioiiately, the sum allocated tci secondary education was too large when compared with t,he allocation.; 'io'r the maintenance of Citir common schools. He was not against higher education, which had its proper niche in our national scheme, but whir: he endeavoured tc, prove was that the needs of the primary system demanded that it should receive a greater share oT the annual education budget than it got, to-day.

In agreement with many experienced educationalists in- this Dominion, he was satisfied that t,he conditions or tests under which pupils were admitted into secondary schools required to be stiffened up. He made bold to say that the present test did not assure that the type of child going into the big hschools under the free place system would really benefit or profit by a secondary school course. At the present time there were many, young girls and boys who had gained admission to the high schools, but, having regard to their, mental powers and aptitudes ought in their own interests, and certainly in the interests of the State, to go either into technical or into vocational schools, where they would derive greater, benefit and more profit by taking the course of those schools. It was quite true that the Hon. J. A. Hanan, when he was in charge o'f the Education Department, did stiffen up the test for a free place by raising the standard of the work required from competitors for proficiency certificates. But that reform did not go far enough,, and. in his opinion there was'ample justification 'for further action in that direction.