TECHNICAL EDUCATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 May 1922, Page 5

TECHNICAL EDUCATION.

CONFERENCE OF SUPERVISORS. DISCUSSION ON COURSES. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. A conference of technical education directors, supervisors, boards of managers and teachers is now sitting here. Mr. W. F. Durward was elected president for the ensuing year. The retiring president (Mr. Newton, of the Napier Technical College) gave an address mostly devoted to the reorganisation of primary and secondary education. It was a defect of our system that the average age at which pupils begin their secondary work is two years higher than in any other progressive country. The tendency js towards the prolongation rather than the shortening of the period of elementary training. During a discussion on post-primary education, numerous motions were passed, including the following, moved by Mr. W- - Bennett: “That in order to provide the most favorable conditions for fostering the growth of the spirit of co-operation and loyalty, our system of education should be so organised that no break occurs in the secondary school period by the passage from one school to another. To secure this: (a) A senior high school should have a junior school as part of its organisation, or should provide a course of at least four years, commencing with a junior high school second-year course; (b) where junior high schools are established as educational units separate from a primary school, and from a senior high school, it is desirable that as soon as soon as the growth of population allows senior high school courses shall be added to the curriculum until a full sixyear course is provided by the school; (c) where junior high schools exist as separate units, pupils qualifying for secondary education at an age below the normal should be encouraged to enrol at a high school providing both junior and senior courses, while pupils qualifying for secondary education more than one year later than the normal age should be encouraged to attend a separate high school providing both senior and junior courses, unless the parents are prepared to give a guarantee that the pupil will remain at school until at least one year of the senior course has been taken.”

The conference also expressed its opinion that the primary course should be determined by the attainment that could reasonably be expected of pupils who have completed their twelfth year.