■n:(iiM(.M. i:i)i( Aiiox. 447 



niucli more numerous, nwing to tiic iiresent war, tliaii ilu-y 

 lia\e hitherto l)oen. 



'J he training re.juired must raise tlie wliite worker abo\ c 

 tlie h'mitation? of the coloured: it must produce in him the 

 initiative to achance beyond the standard practice of hi^ ])re- 

 decessors, to do more intricate work in liis trade and to (h^ it 

 well, to devise new methods and new tools — in other words, to 

 break new ground. It is in these finer things that the bulk oi 

 the coloured i)eople usually fail, tliey are good imitators but 

 poor originators. A system of technical education t(i effed 

 this must do more than merely instruct in methods that havv 

 obtained in the past; it must use these methods to educate to 

 improvement in iiresent methods with tuitii^n in the latest ad- 

 vancements taking ])lace in other countries. .Manx highlx 

 ])laced educationists think and say thrit there must be a complete 

 system of primary school education, of which every child of 

 school-going age is taking advantage, before consideration can 

 be gi\t;i to technical education; others wotild limit technical 

 education to those who have com])lete(l the full primary school 

 course or to those who can ac([uire a so-called preliminary 

 technical certificate the subjects for which are not technical.""^' 

 and require a ])reparation eqtial to that gi\en in Form 11. or 

 Form 111. of a Transvaal High Schi;ol. Koth attitudes appear 

 to me to be based itpon a mistaken idea of the value of uni- 

 formity — that children must all learn the same things in the same 

 wa_\- howe\er n.nich their intelligence may differ one from the 

 other — that it is their duty to climl) what is called the educa- 

 tional ladder by the rungs, and that they may not '" shin " up 

 the sides cif that ladder. Neither attitude appears to recognise 

 that a system n\ teclmical education beginning with tools ami 

 materials in the workshop will lead to the ac(|uirement of a 

 general education on the part if the inipil. together with i 

 desire for more knowdedge of the theoretics of the craft. F2ach 

 would ap])ear to C(-':idemn the intelligence because it cannot ac- 

 (|uire a certain standard in the(~)retica] subiects of wdiich it can- 

 not see the ])ractical application, of which it cannot " see th.c 

 use." Because there is an early adolescence cou]:)led vvitli a 

 retarded general education, compared with European standards, 

 appears to me to be one of the very reasons why a special system 

 of technical education is necessary for this country. 



The h\c retardations — the native poimlation, Ihe coloured 

 conimunitv, the absence of industrialism in previtjus times, the 

 |'>oor-\\ hite ))roblem, antl the earl\- adolescence with a lower 

 averao"e standard of general education — show that a system of 

 technical education to be suitable for the bulk oi the yr>ung 

 people in this country nntst depart largelv from any European 



'''The subjects of examination for tlie Preliniinarv Teclinical Certiti- 

 ■ate of the Xational Advisory Board for 'i'eclinical lidncation. Union of 

 South .\frica. are: — (i) civics, (ii) one of tlie offici;'! lan^uayes, (iii) 

 mathematics, (iv) technical (h'awing-. and ( v) e\peri;nental science or 

 mannal training, with the recommendation thai experimental science he 

 takc-n in place of manual training. 



