2S prcsiDknt's address. 



ment of the youth. In his report for 1916, the Director of 

 Edtication for the Transvaal says ; " The need for a longer school 

 life for all pupils, whatever their destination may be, has been 

 urged on the ground that a higher standard of individual and 

 national efficiency will in future be imperatively necessary. Post 

 war problems and conditions are likely to impose a test severer 

 than anything we have known before. There will be no room 

 for slackers, and the daily output, whatever form it takes, will 

 have to be improved in quality and increased in quantity. The 

 productive power of the manhood and womanhood of the nation 

 will have to be materially advanced, if we are to shoulder the 

 burden which will be laid on us ; and the necessary tuning up of 

 the physical, mental and moral resources of the nation must be 

 sought, in the first place, in. longer and more effective training 

 for all in the schools." 



Compulsory education was instituted in the Transvaal in 

 1907, and. under the Ordinance passed in igi6, the Administrator 

 has power, on the recommendation of a local authority, to raise 

 the age or standard of exemption (at present Standard V, or 15 

 years ) from compulsory attendance at school, and to provide for 

 compulsory attendance at continuation classes. A minimum of 

 two years after the conii)letion of the sixth standard is contem- 

 plated b}' the Director, which means on the average eight years' 

 schooling after the pupil has passed otit of the sub-standards or 

 grades. " We want." he says, " to kee]) these two years from 

 fourteen to sixteen so pregnant Avith possibilities, for school for 

 all pupils, and not see them given out to arresting and stunting 

 labour or aimless loafing." The movement on the Rand is a 

 strong one; let us all hope that it will meet with success. But 

 it must be accompanied by reforms in the curricula, making them 

 more vocational and specificall}' industrial. And the complete 

 organisation beyond the primary school course, suggested by the 

 Director, is — (i) general or high-school courses; (2) trades- 

 school courses; (3) school-farm courses; (4) commercial 

 courses; (5) domestic science cotirses ; (6) urban technical 

 courses; and (7) rural technical courses. The use of the word 

 " technical " in this case is to be deprecated ; such a school is 

 proposed for Johannesljurg, but what is meant is really a secon- 

 dary school in which mathematics and science receive special 

 attention. The trade school system in the Transvaal is now 

 established on a firm basis; it receives the sympathy and whole- 

 hearted support of the mine employers, and by a new arrange- 

 ment, a two years' course at the Trades School has become the 

 necessary preliminary to apprenticeship on the mines. 



The mining industry continues to serve a useful purpose in 

 allaying the hardships of unemployment. It may be of" inteixst 

 to note that about 46 per cent, of the total white employees on 

 the mines are of South African birth ; and the percentage of the 

 white underground employees, who are South African bom, can- 

 not l>e less than 75 per cent. The establishment by the Govern- 



