The Daily News. TUESDAY, JANUARY 23, 1912. TECHNICAL SCHOOLS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 175, 23 January 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, JANUARY 23, 1912. TECHNICAL SCHOOLS.

The value" %f compulsory primary education is brought home to the citizen when he discovers how little comparative interest is taken in voluntary technical education which is intended to fit citizens for the serious business of life. New Plymouth affords a rather unusual example of elaborate preparation for technical instruction and lack of proper accommodation for primary scholars. The stranger to this town introduced to the respective buildings and being told how many children attend the Central and infant schools and how few scholars attend the Technical School, would be surprised at the freakishness of the authorities. For the town the size of New Plymouth the primary school accommodation is the worst in New Zealand, and its badness is brought into striking contrast by the elaborateness of the preparation for the technical instruction of a particularly small minority of scholars. The examination lists that we have been reading lately demonstrate that Taranaki children, handicapped as they unquestionably are by being bound to use antiquated, unhealthy wooden buildings which have outlived their usefulness, are still able under capable instruction to secure many scholastic successes. Because our children are able to win under strong handicaps, there is no reason why these handicaps should be imposed. The possession of an almost empty Technical School and a very overcrowded primary school would suggest to the authorities that the Technical School might be used as class rooms for primary scholars, but it is hardly likely that the justice of decreasing the disabilities under which the primary school children suffer will be allowed to interfere with an institution which throughout New Zealand seems to be becoming the more plaything of tho authorities. If it were made compulsory for every youth who had left the primary school to attend technical classes, there could be no objection to them having the use of buildings

as good or superior to those used for the little ones. Under present circumstances, however, the little, ones are handicapped in order that a very small minority of scholars shall justify the continuance of the technical school system. The languor of the rising generation and its distaste for utilising the expensive advantages obtained by earnest educationists is observable everywhere, and as much in the cities as in the lesser centres. One might imagine that in Dunedin, peopled largely by practical Scots, that the advantages offered would be eagerly accepted. But this scho'ol last year lost £3OO in capitation allowance because the pupils did not turn up in sufficient numbers to earn it. The Dunedin people are reported as viewing the matter as a serious one. The seriousness of the situation is that money and brains and time are expended on small classes, when the money, brains and time should be expended on children who are forced by'law to attend the primary schools. If the people do not use the technical schools, and children cannot be compelled to use them, they should be abolished as a handicap to primary school children. New Plymouth people are told that their Central and infant schools are unfit to be used for the purpose. The parents who neglect to send their children to these unfit schools when the vacation is over break the law. The law therefore insists that children must got to schools that are unhealthy and overcrowded. A speaker at a Dunedin Technical School meeting remarked that "something should be done to compel these young people to recognise their responsibilities." He said the trouble is chronic, and there is no doubt about it. One is not so much surprised at the failure of the technical schools to attract voluntary pupils as frequently miserable treatment of primary schools, innumerable committees being almost penniless and having to adopt all sorts of expedients to carry on. The instructors at technical schools, are in many cases wasting their time, their expert knowledge, and their opportunities in being bound to instruct so limited a number of pupils. Parents in the bulk readily grasp the idea that every child should receive primary education, but parents in the bulk have never realised that the primary school child who leaves school is only just .beginning his education, and that it is not finished when the school child has become an octogenarian. In most other countries the value of technical instruction is highly appreciated. The New Zealand youngster is often permitted to believe -he knows everything there is to know. As. a matter of fact, his knowledge is peculiarly limited. A successful -examinee js not necessarily a successful citizen, and the child who attains a hundred per cent, of marks may never be able to earn a living. The technical schools supply the most valuable part of ii youth's training, but if the youth scorns this part and his parents are tired in the matter, too, there is no 'doubt that technical schools should be abolished,and. the money sunk in them be turned to a purpose for which it is urgently required, the foundation of tlie education of young children.