READING AND WRITING.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 December 1915, Page 8

READING AND WRITING.

POORLY TAUGHT. MINISTER FOR EDUCATION" SPEAKS OUT. (From our Own Correspondent). Wellington, December 13. "My recent visits to schools in various parts of the Dominion have made me more than ever convinced that reading, writing and composition are poorly taught," said the Minister for Education (Hon. J. Hanan) to a New Zealand Times reporter yesterday. "It Is a very grave statement to have to make regarding our national schools, bit the facts have to be faced. There are exceptions, of course, but in the majority of our schools these basic, essential subjects ate not being taught as they should be, with the result that the children are being turned out imperfectly equipped for the everyday business of life.

"The trouble does not stop in the primary schools. Children go from the primary schools into the secondary and the technical schools, and there they begin the study of foreign languages before they can write and talk their own language properly. I have heard scholars in a New Zealand school reading Latin a great deal better than they could read English. How can it benefi'; a child to take up secondary subjects tor a year or two when his primary education is obviously incomplete? We have business men throughout the country protesting that the boys and girls are coming out of the schools without that knowledge of the elementary subjects that they should have, and my own observation iella me that the complaints are justified. "I am determined that these subjects —reading, writing, and composition—shall receive more attention in the schools. Teachers and inspectors must see that we get better results. J am inclined to think the establishment of a seventh standard, though it would make the children stay longer in the primary schools, would be attended by good results. That is a matter for consldera-' tlon, but I don't think T am on debatable ground at all when I say that the boy or girl who cannot read intelligently, show an understanding of the English language, and write a letter properly, has not received an effective primary education,"