PRIMARY EDUCATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 February 1921, Page 5

PRIMARY EDUCATION.

NEW SCHEME PROPOSED. SCHOOL HOSTELS FAVORED. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. The School Inspectors’ Conference adopted to-day a report of a special committee appointed to consider a modification of primary education and suggest suitable primary courses. The committee recommended that the primary course should end when pupils reach approximately the standard of the present ’standard five, the primary course to be modified to permit pupils to reach that standard generally at about the age of twelve, with special post-primary instructors for those not reaching standard five at the age of fourteen; that the post-primary courses be provided at the secondary schools providing more or less academic courses of study for suitable pupils, or at high schools providing more general secondary courses leading to an academic course, rural or agricultural course, industrial course, commercial course, or domestic course, or at special classes established in these high schools for backward pupils. The committee recommended that the selection of pupils for these different courses be made by the inspector and head teacher in consultation with the parents rather than by the results of one qualifying examination; that district high schools or secondary departments with hostels attached be established in suitable centres to meet the needs of pupils in country districts. It was recommended that no science, woodwork, cooking, or advanced needlework be required in the primary course, though handwork and Nature study, including gardening, should be continued. The changes should be introduced very gradually, beginning next year in the" centres where the primary schools are most overcrowded: also in existing district high school centres and efficiently conducted schools where standard seven can be conveniently established. The committee emphasised that no secondary course should be closed to any boy or girl fitted to benefit by it.