TECHNICAL EDUCATION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1297, 31 January 1885, Page 3

TECHNICAL EDUCATION.

The following is the circular which was referred to by the Premier in his address last week, a copy of which has been forwarded to all the governing bodies of secondary schools in New Zealand : “ Your attention is called to the great importance of including in the programme of the secondary schools as much instruction as possible in subjects that have a direct bearing upon the technical acts of modern life. Endowments and other public aids have been bestowed on Grammar and High Schools to enable them to supply to all classes, and not to the professional classes only, a course of study preparatory to the more direct and immediate training for special careers. The secondary schools should, therefore, be prepared to supplement the primary schools and to carry on pupils trained in them to higher studies. The State also expects the managers of the secondary schools bear in mind that the professions are likely to become overcrowded unless something is done to create a bias towards industries, and that our manufacturing industries will not be followed by our brighter and more inteligent youths if they are merely drilled in the ordinary subjects of a grammar school education. In other countries increasing attention is now being paid to geometrical and mechanical drawing and to the handling of tools. As useful subjects of school instruction, the schools of the colony might dp good service by taking up these subjects as well as physics and chemistry. Good work might also be done by holding for a few months in each year evening classes, in which apprentices and others might have an opportunity of getting sound instruction in drawing and other subjects connected with their business or trade. In some towns voluntary effort has to a, certain extent supplied what is wanted in the way of evening classes, but the schools could in some instances afford scientific instruction more thoroughly. It should be remembered that soma schools hold their endowments under trusts requiring them to keep up evening classes. If the secondary schools have become in any respect unpopular in any parts of the colony, it may be because the people have not seen any direct practical results from them, Were attention paid to technical education aj woll as to ordinary studies in secondary schools, the objections now urged against the endowing of High and Grammar Schools would probably not be heard.”