A CENTURY’S PROGRESS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 716, 16 July 1929, Page 18

A CENTURY’S PROGRESS

ADULT EDUCATION IN NEW ZEALAND SURVEY URGED A survey of adult education in New Zealand is necessary, and the appointment of a committee of the Workers’ Educational Association to investigate the matter and formulate a policy is also required. These opinions were expressed by Mr. W. H. Cocker, president of the association’s district council, addressing members of the Auckland Education Society last evening on adult education of the past century, with particular reference to the last 20 years. In the early part of last century, charity schools were the sole means of learning in the Dominion, he said. Then followed the mechanics’ institutes, which enlightened members on the scientific principles of their trades, but which later died a natural death because of the reducing Influence in the level of their teaching. A national system of education gradually replaced the charity schools and social and political organisations contributed their share to spreading knowledge among the adult working class. After primary and secondary education had been established on a sound foundation, the older universities were among the first to commence organised schemes of university training. Due to a desire for systematic teaching essentially for the working classes, the Workers’ Educational Association had been evolved and developed in co-operation with the universities. The tutorial system was favoured against the lecture system, as the former brought the students into closer contact with their tutors, and small classes were the rule. In New Zealand a compromise had been reached. Only the association was actively functioning. There was a representative controlling authority and although the trades unions were represented, the students themselves were by no means confined to manual labourers. Referring to the need for a policy of adult education, he said the necessary survey work had been left to the association and, although it suited them, he did not consider it the most suitable from the country’s viewpoint.