3.
Secondary Education as a Background to Technical Education and Training
3.1. The writer was specifically asked to look at the problem of the 12-14 year old pupils who were unable to enter a secondary school and for whom it was considered vocational training might be more appropriate than further general education. Two immediate difficulties presented themselves. In the first case it was represented to the writer that industry would not accept trainees under the age of 16 and in the second it is accepted practice that eight years of general education are essential for the majority of the crafts so that the young people who would go through these schools would be condemned to some kind of operative training which was more the province of industry than Government in the long term; in any case it would not involve anything like two years of training even allowing for a substantial element of general education in the course.
3.2. The present policy in general education does not appear to take sufficient cognizance of the economic needs of the country in the sense that it does not consciously provide any kind of preparation for life in what is essentially an industrial and trading community. Rather more than 50% of the age group appear to be entering the secondary schools and, excepting the small proportion in secondary technical schools, the bulk of these undergo a very academic type of education. Moreover, the emphasis is to all intents and purposes on the acquisition of a passport in the shape of a school certificate to either the University or a post in Government service. These two factors militate against the secondary technical schools and against any kind of secondary modern or 'bias' course at the lower level. It is clear therefore that a place in a post-primary vocational course, however disguised, is going to be the last choice of all.
This pre- disposition to assign pupils to some kind of technical activity when they fail to pass an academic selection test for further education merely confirms parents in their belief that an academic education leading to a 'white collar' occupation, or to the professions, is the only alternative.
3.3. The writer therefore urges that this whole matter be reviewed and that further consideration be given to a 6:2:3:2 system where selection at primary six leads to a common junior secondary or preparatory year followed by selection into a three-year senior secondary course (academic, technical or commercial) and two years of sixth form work. Selection at the end of the junior secondary course would lead more satisfactorily then into technical training for those who failed to enter the senior secondary system. The curriculum of the junior secondary course would need to include a practical and creative element in the shape of handicrafts for all students as well as for an introduction to practical physical science adequate to introduce all students to the wheel, the lever and the screw and to simple concepts in heat, light, sound and biology. In this way students would be exposed to an educative process which if properly integrated into the remainder of the programme could help them make a more rational selection of subjects at the senior stage or help them to acclimatise themselves readily to any practical kind of occupation they may undertake. Not only is subsequent craft training shortened, thus allowing more time for the inclusion of such subjects as social studies, but the student's grasp of the practical concepts and activities is greatly facilitated; he is already accustomed to tools and knows something of the properties of the common working materials and quickly sees the inter-relationship with physics and mathematics. Of greater importance for many would be the discovery of a creative bent through the integrated development of mental and manual skills. For the less able, the exercise of any constructive urge through such an outlet as craftwork can often have a stimulating effect upon any other creative faculties and upon progress in the study of more theoretical and
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