COMPULSORY TECHNICAL TRAINING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 302, 17 December 1908, Page 4

COMPULSORY TECHNICAL TRAINING.

WAXfiAM't SCHEME uI'I'USEI). At tin- Education Hoard meeting yesterday tlii» following circular from'the Wanganui Education Board was considered : •'ln view of the fact that facilities (buildings, equipment, apparatus, and material) for continuation and technical instruction have been provided and aiv now being maintained at great cost to the country the time has runin when .effective measures should be taken in I secure such an attendance at the sthools as was contemplated when they were built, from the time id' leaving the primary school till the age uf 17 or IS is rightly regarded as being a critical period so far as the shaping of character is concerned, but it is to be feared that in the majority of cases tile spare hours of this period are either wasted or directed sometimes to an undesirable cud. This Hoard accordingly resolves: •That the Minister for Education, lie asked to consider the advisability of bringing in legislation requiring all voting people residing within reasonable ilislaiice of a technical school to attend on two evenings per week at such continuation oi* technical courses as -may be provided for them; and that for the furtherance of this, .proposal the. cooperation of the other Boards of the Dominion be sought;, and that a copy of the ■Board's report lie forwarded to each Board and to the. Education Department.'" The Board decided: ''That, while sympathising with the proposal of the Wanganui Education Board in trying to get our boys to avail themselves of the technical instruction provided for tlieni Iby way of continuation classes, we are of the opinion that anything in the nature of compulsion would not be in the best interests of technical education, and would not be appreciated by the people of Taranaki."