THE TRADES SCHOOL IN THE TRANSVAAL. 359 



Resolmtioi IT. 60. 



That in the opinion of this Conference the Trades Schools should be 

 a direct avenue into industries, and that the main entrance to a Technical 

 University Course should be through the science side of the ordinary High 

 School or equivalent institution. 



The Curriculum. 



The trades school, as a whole, is looked upon as a works 

 where young lads are trained with a view to a future career ; the 

 rules which w^ould be applied in a commercial works are there- 

 fore applied in the trades school, namely, that pupils attend 

 regularly at the hours laid down, that they make satisfactory 

 , progress in their respective trades, and that they make up all 

 absences from the school, for whatever reason, until the stipu- 

 lated period of training has been completed. The qualifications 

 for entry are that the pupil shall have satisfactorily passed the 

 fourth standard of the Transvaal Education Code, and be not 

 less than thirteen years of age at the time of joining the school. 

 On first admission, all pupils go through a probationary 

 course in general workshop practice for six months or less, at 

 the discretion of the Principal, who has the final decision on the 

 fitness of the pupils under his charge. On completing this pro- 

 bationary period, a pupil is required to be indentured for a fur- 

 ther period of three years as an apprentice in the trade selected. 

 While at the trades school the apprentice will work at a specific 

 trade, under a qualified tradesman, whose first duty is to instruct 

 the apprentice in the correct handling of the tools necessary in 

 the various processes of his trade. The instructor does not 

 merely do work himself, and use the apprentice to fetch and 

 carry for him ; he is there to give efficient instruction upon sylla- 

 buses of work which have been carefully drawn up for each 

 trade. In addition to the trade instruction given, the primary 

 education of the pupil is continued, as far as possible, from the 

 fifth to the seventh standard. The class-room subjects comprise 

 reading, writing and composition, history and geography, arith- 

 metic, algebra and geometry, drawing and science, treated in such 

 a way as to bear directly on trades : in the third year of instruc- 

 tion, applied mechanics, steam and the steam-engine, machine 

 construction and drawing, building construction, electricity, etc.. 

 are added subjects in which instruction in theory will be given. 

 The pupils are also taught to estimate the cost of carrying out 

 work in their respective trades. The importance to tradesmen 

 of a good general education cannot be over-estimated, and the 

 pupils are expected, therefore, to pay as much attention to school 

 work as they usually do to workshop instruction. After leaving 

 the trades school, the boys' training should be continued bv his 

 entering the commercial workshops of some manufacturing firm, 

 and by attendance at selected classes in the evening courses 

 attached to this institution or elsewhere, according to the locality 

 of the firm engaging his services. In these evening classes he 

 will be encouraged to enter for the higher technological certifi- 

 cates of some external examining body. 



