EDUCATION REPORT

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1026, 17 July 1930, Page 7

EDUCATION REPORT

PROFESSOR ON AGE-LIMIT PROBLEMS A QUESTION OF BALANCE Professor AY. Anderson, of the Auckland University, in discussing yesterday the education report presented to the House of Representatives, wished it to be known that full comment was hampered by the absence of a full report. Regarding secondary schools, he said, the blame for the leakage which occurred there was stated to be that in the lower forms the pupils were handed over to junior teachers with the result that the pupils were discouraged and fell off. In the technical schools the falling off was said to be due to economic conditions. That suggested special pleading. In his opinion the cause of this leakage might be due in each instance to a similar cause. Regarding the age-limit for ending primary education, there seemed to be a conflict of two distinct problems. After discussion in other countries 11 or l:i had been suggested as the proper age. "What might be satisfactory from on© point of view might not be satisfactory from the other. QUESTION OF BALANCE Then came the question of what ago children should be transferred to secondary schools. In this, the question of balance had to be considered. Professor Anderson said he understood that pupils were to be sent to different schools. This produced confusiop. and the amount of this confusion under the present conditions had been reported by the teachers as making it impossible to get real steady and solid work done in fundamental subjects. On the other hand it was desirable that the pupils should have one 'break , when being transferred to a new I system in the secondary schools, in which the whole outlook that had been j gathered in the primary schools could be tested to form the standpoint of a j more comprehensive educational system. The fixing of the desirable age was arrived at by balancing one consideration against another. Nothing conclusive in a scientific sense had been established as to any natural age in the physical development of the individual at which there was a corresponding Organic change. The question of selection for the different types of training was quite different. In the minds of the Government committee, the reason for attaching importance to this seemed largely to rise from the determination that every pupil should have some kind of higher schooling rather than any finality attaching to the method so far adopted for such selection. QUESTION OF APTITUDE “In this instance we should not at- i taeli too much weight to what has been j said of the success of the junior high schools in revealing the aptitude of pupils as judged by their destination on leaving school,” the professor remarked. “It must be remembered that human beings are highly adaptable in any case, and the fact that they fall into a certain groove is very slight evidence that they might not have succeeded in some other vocation. “The real aim of education Is rather to stimulate and call forth capabilities which are not apparent on the surface, and if not so called out may lie dormant. These are apt to produce trouble and discontent in after life. We want to guard against the possibilities of that kind of thing. “If too much stress is laid on vocational training it may result in a lower incentive to teachers to make it their business to look for less obvious lines of interest. It is widely recognised by psychological authorities that the kind of aptitude which exercises in modern industry is very far from being such as to cover the whole field of an individual’s interests. The fact that one individual is more proficient than another is very little indication of what would be required to satisfy his general interests in life.”

Referring* to the criticism existing today that too many pupils were being prepared for professions rather than commerce and industry, Professor Anderson said one point should be emphasised. This was that there was nothing in the nature of the subjects themselves which were taught which had this effect. There was no reason why the same subjects should not be equally useful if demanded as pre-re-quisite to other walks of life. “My own impression is this —that the trouble is not with the schools or what is taught, but with the parents, whose motives are more social and economic.” He went on to say that in many in-, stances parents wanted to give their children a liberal education with and without the thought of entering a profession, and that professional study was the only avenue by which that liberal education could be secured. One of the motives which gave rise to the present result was the general interest in education. ' SCHOOL-LEAVING AGE Mr. G. D. Park, principal of the SeJdon Memorial Technical College, considers that the report is long overdue. The proposals to terminate primaryeducation at the age of 11 years came up at the education conferences he attended over 12 years ago, and have been before the educational public ever since. "New Zealand is the only country in the world where primary education ends as late as it does,” he said. “As Mr. Strong found after lie had visited Australia, at least one year of primary school life is saved there. “If the reforms of .the education report can be carried out, I am of the opinion that we could get the children to work with the same qualifications as they have at present at least a year earlier. ‘ The syllabuses .in the junior technical schools in Australia, which contain English, mathematics, science, and drawing, are equal to the matriculation standard in New Zealand, and those children are usually two rears younger than ours.”