THE EDUCATION SYSTEM

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 128, 22 January 1932, Page 4

THE EDUCATION SYSTEM

The depression, with its attendant necessity for rigorous departmental economies, has focussed attention upon a number oi* Government departments and the urgent necessity for retrenchment and re-organisation. Foremost among these is the Education Department, always a bone of contention and subject of heated controversy. A recent overseas visitor to Rotorua drew attention to New Zealand's exceptionally heavy education vote; the. point scarcely requires emphasising, for, it has received more than passing mention during the past few months. Taken generally, public feeling in regard to education expenditure is a little incoherent, but has a very well defined opinion that we have. not been getting vajue for our money. There can be no doubt that in this conviction public opinion is absolutely right, and that the Education Department 'is not the only one of our Government departments which is open to criticism in thik direction. But, with education, "each believes his own." Everyone, educationalist or otherwise, has certain ideas as to what should, or should not, be done in educating our children, and out of this plethora of divergent ideas we have deveioped the patch-work quilt which is our present education system. The civerage man in the street, knowing nothing of group tests, the Montessori system, or any of • the hundred and one other systems which adorn the discourses of our educational authorities, will probably express _ himself loosely by the assertion that there are "too many frills." 'But then, opinions as to what may legitimately be considered a frill and what may not diifer ; again, it is as impossible to obtain agreement upon this point as it woulcl be to secure political unanimity. One authority supports junior high schools, another does not; one advocates an extension of techniCal education, another argiies that the cultural side is being unduly neglected, and between them all year by year, thousands of young New Zealand'ers pass from our schools to face the world and its manifold problems with the equipment which this much-criticised education system has bestowed upon them. At the present time thousands of them, from one end of the country to the other, are faced by the blank wall of unemployment at the very outset of ■ their careers. This, in itself, cannot be attributed to deficiences in the system which gave them their training, but there is fruitful ground for speculation as to the degree to which the failings of the system may have aggravated the position. But to deal with the shortcomings and merits of New Zealand's education system would requirfe a monumental work. Suffice to say that the whole system, and particularly the return which it is making to the country, re-' quires a very complete overhaul by men who are not concerned alone with the justification of their pet educational theories, but with the pruning and re-organisation of the system so that the burden of its expense may be appreciably reduced and its efhciency enhaxieed. But it is not only the faults in the system Which are responsible for the top-heavy condition of our present education _ structure. The reckless extravagance and heedless waste which has been rife in. this department over a long period of years have at last brought home their lesson and an overburdened people in a time of depression is now being asked to pay for mistakes and bungling accumulating through several ' education administrations. Theories and innovations of all descriptions :have been introduced dnd deveioped under hothouse conditions, unnecessary and extfavagantly extensive building has been undertaken, and more than a little self-consciously, New ^ealand has sought to amplify its claim to lead the world in social legislation by making sections of its education system a happy hunting ground for experimentation. The time has now come when the country must recognise that it cannot afford to allow every- expensive whim to be indulged at the expense of the taxpayer and must get down to the essential structure of a sane and practieal system which will alford equal ehances to all. In a time like the present, essentials only can be maintained, and a great deal of the ornamentation which has recently bedeclced our education system can be dispensed with. If the overhaul which is required is intelligently carried out, the system as a whole will benefit rather than sulfer,' and the general taxpayer will be relieved of some portibn of a burden which hxas. grown out of all proportion to the size of the country. It is not necessary for our legislators to wait until Parliament resumes to qndertake this work. ' A" test' of the capabilities and sincerity of the Coaiition Government will be its attitude towards the .reof gan|.sation of a department which several of its stalwarts have played their part in bringing to its present top-heavy condition.