THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL.

Marlborough Express, Volume LX, Issue 228, 27 September 1926, Page 4

THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL.

The publication of the staff appointpients for the Junior High School indicates the forwardnoss of the preparations for this important change in the education system locally. Evidently the Board of Governors of Marlborough College are losing no time ; the arrangcments are so advanced that there is every prospect of a commencement being made with the operation of the school in February next. Contracts have boen accepted for the ereetion of the new wing at the College, for the construction . of three poi'table elassrooms, for the conversfon of the gymnasium. into a woodwork room, and for the necessary furnishings ; and all these works are now in hand. In view of these undertakings, more than ordinary interest atfaches to the visit to be made to Blenheim tomorrow by the Minister for Education. We \ understand that the Minister is to be asked to make provision for the addition of a domestic-science room' simiultaneously with the ereetion ' of the junior high school, in preferenee to the idca of carrying on cookery 'classes temporarily in the technical school. It is to be hoped that he will be ablc to see his way to comply with the requeSt, Which aceords with the prineiple, advised by the Director of Education, that, wherever possible, technical education should be brought, to the children rather than that the pupils should foe required to shift around from ohe loeation to another. A thing that is worth doing is worth carrying out in complcte fashion, and there is no reason that we know of why this thoroughness should not be applied to the junior high school at Blenheim. We are taking it for granted that in the present view of the Department, as in Ihe view so emphatically expressed in the past by the Director of Education, the junior high school system, so far as its principles and efficiency are concerned, is an eminently desirable thing, and that Marlborough may still consider itself fortunate in having secured provision for this typc of institution before the Ministerial decision to decline each and all of the many similar applications that 1 had accumulated when the Hon. R. A. Wright took office. We take it that this decision is based essentialiy on flnancial considerations, and that fhere need be no lessening of public e-onfidence in pursuing the establishment of a junior high school at Blenheim. It is due to the community that anv unsettling effect, or any impression of the kind, that was not intended by the Minister should be officially removed ; and we are ,hoping that the Hon. Mr Wright will -make to-morrow's visit an opportunity of reassuring the Marlborough people ,on this vital point.