PROBLEMS OF EDUCATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 November 1915, Page 3

PROBLEMS OF EDUCATION.

THE CHILDREN AND THE WAR. A .MATTER OF NATIONAL EFFICIENCY. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Oct. 29. Many of the problems that are arising from the war are problems of education. It may not be true that war is the supreme test of national efficiency, since a people may be morally strong and industrially effective, and still be unprepared on the mechani-, eal side for the ordeal of battle. But modern war does apply a searching test of those personal and national characteristics that it is the aim of true education to inculcate, and, moreover, it raises great issues, pressing and perplexing, that belong almost entirely to the domain of education, using the word in its widest meaning. Knowledge, persistence, breadth of view, and the power to co-ordinate thought and action, in the individual as well as in the nation, are essential to victory in war as they are to success in the peaceful affairs of life.

These aspects of the educational problem in its Telation to the war were mentioned to me to-day by the Hon. •T. A. Hanan, Minister for Education. Since Mr. Hanan took c.ontrol of the Education Department, three months ago, he has been devoting a share of his time to a general survey of New Zealand's education system and a study of its operation and results. The trend of his thought was shown in his references to what may be termed war problems. "The British Empire at the present time is paying a terrible price for the lack of technical efficiency and forethought in the military field," he said. "We need not discuss that point. The facts are admitted and the remedies are being applied. But the international rivalries which helped to bring about this war will not end when the last shot has been fired, and in the irfevitable industrial and economic conflicts of the future inefficiency and want of forethought are going to be penalised again. It is not too much to say, I think, that the real results of war will be determined, not by the terms of the formal treaty of peace, but by the spirit in which the nations face the future and the mental and moral equipment they bring to bear upon their individual problems. what does all this mean to New Zealand That is the question I have been asking myself and it has led me to the further question, 'ls the Department under my control working on right lines?' Let us turn back to the war for a moment. We talk of excluding German goods from the Empire after the war, and of refusing to let the Germans appear again as dangerous trade competitors within our own borders. That is all very well, but the Germans owed their success in the past solely to their technical, industrial and commercial efficiency, and I believe that after the war they will be more formidable than ever in those respects. The pressure of stern necessity will be driving them, and they will fight for trade as strenuously and scientifically a 9 they have fought for victory in war. Their weapon will be education. Take the dye industry for example. Before the war the Germans had a practical monopoly. Now we are trying to make dyes within the Empire and are succeeding so poorly, comparatively speaking, that our manufactures cannot guarantee the shades. We lack the technical efficiency of our rivals. Obviously the dye trade will be in danger of falling back into German, hands after the war.

"National efficiency' must be our goal, and when I ask myself if nur education system is proceeding on the right lines I try to face the actual facts. A Wellington manufacturer complained the other day that he could get dozens of girls to do typewriting in his office, but had difficulty in finding one girl who would undertake actual productive work in the factory. I hear business men saying that the bovs who leave the primary schools and apply for billets often lack initiative and commonsense, and may even fail to writs a decent letter. We seem to have lots of young people in the Dominion, but our industries are handicapped constantly by a shortage of, technically efficient workers. Here are figures showing that American college girls, the product o r higher education, tend to show a low marriage rate and an even lower birthrate. lam afraid I cannot assert cofidently that the same tendencies are not operating in this country. "Do not imagine that I "am maVln<* any sweeping condemnation of the education system, which has been built up by the efforts of many able men over a long period of years. That would be simply foolish. But Ido feel that the people of this country ought to be realising the connection between education and national success, and the need for adequate preparation for what must follow the conclusion of peace. When I hear it said that this is no time to attempt the extension and improvement of the education system, I wonder what people think education is for, or if they appreciate its relation to 'the vital issues of national life. A great educational authority has said that the immediate efforts of educational authorities must be directed towards making I the instruction in the elementary schools a fitting preparation; not so I much for the higher secondary education a 9 for the practice of Hie many technical pursuits in which the overwhelming majority of the children will be subsequently engaged. There is an enormous amount of work to be done in New Zealand along those lines, and if we are to hold in peace what we will win in war we must strive towards the goal of national efficiency now. Depend upon it our enemies will not lack energy, or skill, or knowledge when the war is ended."