Extension of the School System

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 95, 18 April 1941, Page 5

Extension of the School System

HE nineteenth century saw the beginning of the ! systems ofg primary schools for the children of the working classes. In England the development of these schools was marked by the extreme reluctance

of the State to take responsibility for their control and development. That was left as long as possible in the hands of the churches. Only when such provision proved itself unable to meet the demand for education, did the State enter the field itself. Other countries in Europe were not so reluctant to have: State schools, and they, developed State primary school systems early in the nineteenth century. But by whatever roads the nations travelled, all of them had fairly complete systems of primary schools by the time the Great War broke out. The secondary schools, however, were in most cases closed to the majority of children. The years since the Great War have seen the rapid extension of the school system. The. primary schools have taken children younger, and have kept them longer. The secondary schools have had their doors forced open to admit masses of children passing out of the primary schools, and thus they have been radically transformed in their nature and purpose.-("Modern Trends in Education," by G. W. Parkyn, M. A., Dip. Ed., Lecturer in Education, A of Otago, 4YA, April Dd. , oo |