"Taranaki Central Press” FRIDAY, MARCH 5, 1937. EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 375, 5 March 1937, Page 4

"Taranaki Central Press” FRIDAY, MARCH 5, 1937. EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES.

A completely unobtrusive advertisement in this issue tells rather a great story, a story of opportunity knocking at the door of ambitious youths, men or women, right here in Stratford. In form, that advertisement is but a notice telli.ng of the opening of evening classes at the Stratford Technical High School, or, rather, calling a meeting of those interested in the formation of evening classes. The meeting is for Monday next at the High School.

We have it from the Principal of the School that, provided ’groups of eight or nine ; will support them, classes can be formed covering almost every conceivable subject. The High School Board is empowered to arrange instruction as required and is desirous of giving the fullest possible service to the community in this direction. The full equipment of the School is available for use in these evening classes, and the high standard of instruction common to all branches of the School’s work will be the lot of those who grasp the opportunity of attending the additional classes in the evening.

Probably few people in Stratford realise the advantages of having such an institution as the Technical High School located here Under its unified control, full secondary and full technical education is given. It has all the advantages of the city secondary school plus equipment and staff necessary for thorough technical training, and yet, such has been the foresight of those in control, it has developed a rural training side in keeping with the circumstances cf the district it serves.

Had the local High School been developed along normal secondary lines, the opportunity for the extension work such as is offered by the meeting called for next Monday would not have been available to local people. Its sphere would have been limited to the narrower academic training of the usual secondary school. Adult extension education, normally available only in the centres, would not have been possible and thereby a definite lack of educational facilities would have been existent.

In its present form, the School offers undoubted service to the community as a whole, not from the aspect alone of youth training, but by the opportunity it gives older people to participate in actual tuition themselves. We cannot stress the advantage sufficiently. Only a school with a curriculu m combining academic and technical instruction could serve such an end, and those who would participate in the benefits of such additional training are urged to attend Monday’s meeting and state their needs to the Principal.

Evening classes of the nature proposed are not school classses in the ordinary sense. They are tuition groups, designed to meet fully the needs of the students who will have, for the most part, long passed the age of callow youth and its disciplinary indiscretions. Prospective students need be concerned only with their own requirements. The job of the School is to meet those requirements, and in few, if any, places in New Zealand with a population commensurate with that of Stratfor.d will such sympathetic attention to the needs of students be given as is the case here.

To all who have ambition, to all who realise their own nfied for additional education; to all who require technical instruction which will mean greater earning power, we recommend the classes offered ft the High School. Much depends on Monday’s meeting, and we draw the attention of our readers to it, in their own interests.