EDUCATION REFORM

Shannon News, 15 March 1927, Page 3

EDUCATION REFORM

A VOCATIONAL) BUREAU. SYDNEY, Feb. 24. The New South Wales Minister of Education, Mr. Mutch, although he views with alarm the gradual exhaustion, long before the of the financial year, of the comparatively small loan vote allotted to him, and th e consequent upsetting of his programme of new schools and improvements to existing buildings, says he is determined that hia regime as Minister shall b e marked by some big constructive reform. It takes the form of a vocational bureau, in order effectively to meet th e problem of those, who on leaving school, drift into the already vast army of unbilled workers. Of the 35,000 girls and boys who left the primary schools in the State at the end of the year, about 32 per cent., it is estimated, will go into unskilled occupations. The objects of the vocational bureau are to establish a definite and systematic link between the educa- i tion system and industry, in order to i assist school pupils in the selection of callings in keeping with the physical suitability and tlleir natural endowments and to inspire them with a desire to become proficient workers. The aim is not to establish an employment bureau for boys and girls leaving school, but to provide the missing link, as far a s the educational system is concerned between the school and the more serious battle in life when the youngsters close the school gates behind them for good.