YOUTHFUL PRODIGIES

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 310, 22 March 1928, Page 15

YOUTHFUL PRODIGIES

JUNIOR SCHOLARSHIPS POSITION OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS The allocation of a certain number of junior national scholarships to primary schools, to guard against the danger created by the increasing number of secondary school children sitting for these scholarships, was urged in a remit submitted to the School Committees’ Association last evening. MR. T. AITKEN, introducing the question in a remit from Ponsonby, said primary school children were being - excluded, because of the increasing number of candidates from secondary schools. The chairman (Mr. G. Brownlie) and other speakers, said new regulations had lately restricted the scope of the scholarships almost exclusively to primary schools, so that the trouble might already have been thus remedied. “I quite agree,” said Mr. Brownlie, “that these scholarships should be for primary school children only.” Mr. W. A. Woods: Surely you don’t propose to penalise the smart child who, while still young, gets into a secondary school ? He added that he had been told that the largest proportion of junior scholarship winners were from the primary schools. Voices: That is so. Mr. Woods: Then we are setting up a straw man for the sake of knocking him down. The Chairman: It is a moot point whether or not a child can be sent too early to a secondary school. Mr. Aitken agreed to defer further consideration until the next meeting, so that more information could be gathered in the meantime.