School leaving age raised

THE Education Amendment Bill now before Parliament does not lack interesting features and embodies proposals with a view to educational progress. Perhaps the most important of these is the provision for raising the school age to 15 years. At present a pupil may leave school on attaining the age of 14 years. Possibly this is often agreeable to the pupil or to the parents or to both. It has been fairly convincingly demonstrated, however, that it is not conducive to the attainment of a high average standard in primary education. There is the

economic factor to be considered. It may be argued that it is useless to keep any longer at school a pupil who has ceased to make any progress there, and that to so order may entail a genuine hardship upon the parents. There is something to be said in support of such representations. It is more easy to keep a pupil in dalliance at school than to make him profit by the educational opportunities thus afforded.