EDUCATIONAL REFORM

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 7, Issue 421, 25 October 1918, Page 1

EDUCATIONAL REFORM

Objects Explained by Organiser

In consequence of the weather conditions on Monday necessitating the abandonment of the meeting at Fukekohe at which Mr E. U. Just, organiser of the Teachers' Educational Institute, was to have given an address on educational reform, a representative of the "Times" interviewed Mr Just in order to secure particulars from him of the Institute's aims and objects.

I EDUCATION VITALLY IMPORTANT

Mr Just, at the outset, said the question of educational reform was of vital importance. The national education of the past had resulted in satisfactory progress, it had been beneficial to the people and productive of good results, but it was capable of improvement, and the New Zealand Educational Institute believed the time had now come to improve, develop, and extend it in order to meet the greater educational needs of the people, and the demands for increased national efficiency. During the last 36 years many reforms, he stated, had been carried out at the instance of the Institute. No statutory reform, he claimed, would have been placed on the statute book unless at the instance of the Institute. It had been suggested Mr Just explained, that the campaign was inopportune, but things were in the melting pot all the world over, and great re-constructlon would have to take place in order to meet the great war problems. Education would have to undergo the same process in order to fit the future generations of the Dominion to take their place amongst the other countries of the world. * Britain though harassed by the war, had undertaken re-construction on this vital matter, and the Institute felt that in this happier situated country now was the time to bring it forward and get the people to form a fitting estimation of the value of education in order, when the war was finished, that they would be ready with some scheme of improvement. Already good effects had resulted from the campaign.

NATIONAL SYSTEM PREFERRED Continuing, Mr Just remarked that one of the prime needs of the day was the better education of the masses in order to give every man the intellectual attainment which would humanise him and make him something better than a human machine, which was what modern labour methods, with their infinite specialisations tended to make him. It was more essential in a democracy than in any other form of social life that the masses should be educated, and the State was the only authority with the resources to undertake such education. A complete national system was therefore needed. There had been encroachments upon the present national system ; and further encroachments were being attempted. In various parts the Domihion leaflets were being issued insidiously damaging and disparaging our system with a view to setting up opposition schools. He would therefore like to warn the public that if they wanted their national system to remain sound and strong, the only course was to so improve it, and so systematise it that it need fear no competition from outside sources.

LOCAL CONTROL ADVOCATED On the subject of adminstration, Mr Just stated that the present administration had been in existence for the past 40 years, and the argument had been used by Parliamentarians and others that if it bad lasted for 40 years it surely was good enough for a few more years. But it seemed to him that in view of the changed ideals and other changes that if the system had lasted 40 years that in itself was tufficient reason why it should be changed. The administration was somewhat out of date. How many of the powers and functions, he asked, did boards now* have which they originally possessed ? The powers of appointment had gone, they had no control over the expenditure on school buildings or over the training establishments. He was not criticising the Department, but it could not efficiently manage education in all respects, because it could not maintain that local interest which was so desirable, and the inevitable outcome was that the administration became mechanical. Then, as to the school committees, they were in an anomalous position. They had no powers in the way of controlling education. The argument for boards and committees was that they created local interest; but as fact the committees were not in a position to do anything of consequence. One of the important necessities was to unify the control of the various branches of education and produce co-ordination. The Institute wanted local administration. There must be local control to infuse local interest. What the institute suggested was an extension of the local control that was supposed to be exercised by school committees—not quite in the same form as at present, but it would be an extension of the school committee system. It was proposed to substitute local bodies with more power, by dividing the Dominion into districts according to community

of interest and appointing to each district a controlling body that would supply all the wants of education in that district. The constitution of this authority was debatable. The institute had two alternative proposals—(l) election on some franchiee; (2) local bodies to be the controlling authority in this sense that the local education authority would be appointed by them.

80H00T, AOK QUE3TION Another subject of even greater importance was the extension of the years of tutelage. The Institute suggested the extension of the years of compulsory tutelage from 14 years to 16 years. The Institute thought that instead of preparing children for a leaving certificate—for that was what the proficiency certificate had come to be—the Sixth Standard should be made merely a preparatory standard for discovering the aptitudes of all pupils, and preparing them for their secondary education. This proposal provided for the education of all pupils, not only the clever ones. At present they dropped the children from tutelage when they had not been taught how to use their leisure, and this was a serious defect in our system. In England they were extending the period of tutelage to 18 years—whole time from 14 to 16 years, and whole or part time from 16 to 18 years.

VOCATIONAL TRAINING Coming to the question of vocational training, Mr Just remarked that it had been suggested that it should begin at 12 years, and there was a tendency to lower the school age in order to allow the vocational training to begin early. The Educational Institute thought that there was a danger in those suggestions. If adopted they meant that vocational training would begin too early. General education ought to precede vocational education. The object should be to make human beings first. How could one choose the vocation of a child of 12? The Institute suggested that vocational training should not begin until the vocation was chosen, and that it should then continue to the age of 18. In this connection Mr Just said the prevalent opinion today was that the girls didn't matter; that the boys alone were the only ones who should be educated. This was the very worst thing from the national point of view. The girls of to-day were the future moulders of the home life, they were the ones who would have the most important work in the future upbringing of the nation, and instead of improving their education they were now too often to be found "gadding about" and neglecting their opportunities.

WHAT IS AIMED AT ! Finally Mr Just referred to a tew reforms urgently necessary : (1) That cadets in the teaching profession should receive at least the same pay as cadets in the Public Service ; (2) more and better trained teachers; (3) smaller classes ; (4) State kindergartens; (5) better lighting and heating of schools; (6) an increased inspectorate, in order that inspectors might be able to spend more time in schools where their help was needed; (7) bigger playgrounds; [X) continuation classes and adult classes. For these latter there would be no need presently if a proper national system, such as he had sketched, were instituted. In conclusion, Mr Just said that the Institute were not trying to force upon the peoplo the scheme he had outlined. They were prepared to support any better schema.