PRKSIDEXTIAL ADDRESS SKCTIOX D. 3I 



school course — the Matriculation Examination — is really a 

 vocational one. Ihit there is no such check in the case of the 

 senior boy of the primary school, and that, in my opinion, is one 

 of the reasons why the highest class there is usually a mere 

 rump. 



In the Transvaal primary course there are seven standards, 

 and before the boy leaves school pass in standard five is com- 

 pulsory, or the attainment of the age of fifteen. I think that in 

 urban areas the legal standard might well be raised to six, the 

 age of fifteen still being retained, as the normal child should 

 finish standard six at fourteen. 



After passing this compulsory standard six, at which stage 

 he should have a fair knowledge of his mother tongue and tlie 

 other official language of the Union, the pupil would then have 

 the choice of beginning a four years' course of further education 

 at a secondary school, or of remaining in a voluntary standard, 

 seven at the primary school. I have come to the opinion that 

 the work of this standard should not be a continuation of the 

 work of the previous six standards, but should be vocational in 

 character. This might be provided for at selected schools in each 

 urban area, the courses being commercial, industrial or general. 

 I believe that in this way, the work of the highest class of the 

 primary school could be given a meaning, and more pleasurable 

 interest, without which learning is impossible, would be 

 awakened. As Profesor Adams said, " The theory of interest 

 does not propose to banish drudgery, but only to make drudgery 

 tolerable by giving it a meaning." Most boys, I am convinced, 

 look on the standard seven work as meaningless drudgery. I 

 believe that the raising of the compulsory standard to six, with 

 voluntary vocational work to follow would be cheaper and more 

 effective than the establishment of compulsory continuation classes. 

 Continuation classes, so called, are almost exclusively vocational. 

 Boys will not go to evening classes to learn English Composition 

 or South African History. An extra year at day school is worth 

 several years of evening work, consisting, as the latter does, of 

 only three or four hours a week. Let there be voluntary con- 

 tinuation classes by all means, with courses as varied and as in- 

 teresting as possible ; another year's day school preparation will 

 tend to increase the demand for them, and will contribute much to 

 their efficiency. 



A national system of this kind, beginning with a primary 

 course of six standards, followed either by supplementary voca- 

 tional courses, or by a four years' secondary course, would have 

 at the apex of the pyramid its University education, regarding 

 which in South Africa a far-reaching constructive policy is soon 

 to be announced. 



It cannot be 'denied that hitherto there has been a want of in- 

 telligent direction in the higher education of South Africa. Like 

 Topsy — it growed. I often wonder why the Transvaal Universit}' 

 College, at its inception, did not take all the embryo teachers in 



