The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1914. SECONDARY EDUCATION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 278, 21 November 1914, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1914. SECONDARY EDUCATION.

In the report on Secondary Education for the year 1913, the extracts from Inspectors’ reports with regard to District High Schools indicate that in general the work of these schools is satisfactory in 'character. The secondary programmes are mainly based on approved rural and domestic schemes, and a portion of each week is devoted to practical work in the garden, the laboratory, the - workshop, and the cookery-room. It was in order to encourage programmes of this character that the Board established the Senior B Scholarships in which marks are given for practical work done during the year, and, the report says, it is gratifying to find that the number of competitors for these scholarships is increasing. In 1911 eleven pupils under sixteen years of age obtained the number of marks necessary to qualify for a scholarship, in the following year the number rose to fifteen, while last year twenty-one were successful; and of the competitors who had been two years in the secondary classes only one failed to qualify, his failure being in the written and not in the practical test. This result shows a steady increase in the efficiency of the practical work of these schools; and when it is remembered that the average time of a pupil in the secondary classes is two years or slightly under, these classes may be said to accomplish all that can bo reasonably expected of them in “bringing about a more intimate relation than, generally speaking, at present obtains between the course of instruction at district high schools and rural pursuits.” The opinion arrived at by the Inspectors is that there are two branches of education which should receive more encouragement in the Dominion—namely, agricultural training for our boys, and domestic training for our girls. The Inspectors are* right in saying that the district high schools cannot be expected to give to our scholars the training which is the proper function of a specialised or vocational school, but they can, and do, give an introduction to such training. They will not make farmers of our boys, but they will give those who wish to become farmers an additional interest in their work, and also a training in scientific method which will assist them materially in their efforts to solve many of the problems of the farm. The weak point in the system is the lack in the North Island of some distinctly vocational institution on the lines of Lincoln College in Canterbury, where our rural-scholarship winners could effectively carry on their agricultural -training.