THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, September 16, 1936. EDUCATION POLICY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22987, 16 September 1936, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, September 16, 1936. EDUCATION POLICY

In its pre-election manifesto the Labour Party spoke in grandiose vein of what it proposed to do for education, expenditure upon which it declared to be different from all other expenditure. In general observations which he has been offering in the north on this subject, the Minister of Education lias not been loth to credit the Labour Government with having done a great deal since it came into power. He claims that " a new- vision has been brought into education." It is rather early yet to assess the evidence on this point. No previous Minister of Education has been in the happy position which Mr Fraser occupies in having the means at his disposal wherewith to make the vision materialise. At the conference of education boards he said that necessary educational works had accumulated like a spring tide, and it would take millions to put our education buildings in " a decent, workable position." Now the Minister says that there is no lack of money, but the difficulty will be to get the work done. So in one way, if not in another, the pace at which the new vision can express ttself must be somewhat restricted. Meanwhile the largest recorded vote for school buildings has been placed on the Estimates and in due course there should be something to show for it. As regards the educational deficiencies that are receiving attention, the Minister has particularised a little. The new vision in education has produced forty new conveyance services for children, and is evolving new school buses as fast as it can. Emphasis is laid on the Government's ideal of opening the road from the kindergarten to the University to every child who wishes to traverse it. But there is no great need for Ministerial resonance in relation to this objective. The road was open long before the present Government was heard of whereby pupils of ability might obtain a free passage from the primary school to the University. The present Government has possibly some idea of making it a primrose path: it apparently proposes to remove what it regards as hurdles that may deprive the child of the chance of becoming "fully educated." The examination system seems to come under its suspicion in that connection. The Minister's pronouncement on the subject reflects this suggestion, but, save for his denunciation of the proficiency examination, it has been more or less a generalisation. Mr Fraser's attitude to the matriculation examination certainly appears to be critical and to presage some changes. This examination, he says, has become, not a test for university education, but a standard of commercial efficiency. To a large extent, no doubt, that is true. The matriculation certificate has acquired a general value as an educational hallmark. To a prospective employer it offers a guarantee of education up to a certain standard. But that, after all, is something apart from the function of the matriculation examination as a test for admission to the university, and the number of matriculated students who enter the university colleges is certainly very considerable The implication of the Minister's utterance may be that he desires to see that number greatly increased. But matriculation and entrance to the university are voluntary steps. The question of a test for university entrance is surely a matter that comes within the province of the University Senate. The matriculation test has incurred criticism as being too mild in New Zealand, with a consequence that too many students enter the university colleges who are not possessed of the requisite preliminary educational grounding. The examination system has its drawbacks, but it is to be doubted whether the new vision in education is going to make, by sheer inspiration, a really valuable contribution to the settlement of a time-honoured controversy Clearly there must be some qualifying tests of the training at secondary schools and colleges. There can certainly be agreement with what

the Minister has said about the tendency on the part of educationists to complain that their particular branch is the Cinderella of the education system. Mr Fraser has been circumspect in indicating that he wants to hear no more arguments in the Cinderella strain, since, instead of offering the traditional reservation about the exigencies of finance, he has presented himself as that administrative novelty, a Minister of Education with plenty of money at his disposal.