Better Education

Tractor For

Onesua

Better Education For Hebrideans

AFORDSON tractor, gift of New Zealand adherents of the Presbyterian Church to the new High School at Onesua, Efate, New

Hebrides, was shipped from Sydney

in April.

The High School, something new in native education in the Hebrides, is on the opposite side of the island from Vila, and about 40 miles distant by road. The school has been in operation for three years and the roll has grown from 11 pupils to the present 47.

Native members of the New Hebrides Presbyterian church have raised £4,000 for the school and sup plied the labour; other financial assistance was given by the Presby terian church of New Zealand.

Native education in the Hebrides is almost entirely in the hands of Missions and this school is the first High School. Instruction is entirely in English, at the request of the pupils themselves, and although the final year students at present reach an educational standard equivalent only to the end of primary education

in New Zealand, it represents a ) advance in education in the Hebrid Students who receive their pi liminary education at village scho and later district schools, must pi an entrance examination (in Ed! lish) and pay fees of £2O per ye This sum, in relation to the avers' Hebridean family budget, is co; siderable and it is hoped event: ally to reduce fees substantial/: This will be when the school, throu its gardens and plantations, can p its own way—and that is where t gift tractor will assist.

The school is in 600 acres of lair most of it at present bush. It! hoped to establish cocoa and cofi< plantations to provide an incom school food gardens are alres; established.

The curriculum of the school!' based on vocational lines and pu]n will be encouraged to agriculture, carpentry, engineerfi or to study academic subjects tl will qualify them to enter ) Presbyterian teacher s’ trainx college at Tangoa, an island T Santo.

Entrance examination to the HI School is based on a stand; 5 acquired by an average 9-years4child in a New Zealand school;!; candidates sat for the examinatt last year and 12 made the grade a entered the school in 1956.

School buildings are in permanc materials, with iron roofs, cemir

s and coral lime walls. It is the *e of the Presbyterian Church the buildings should be in ing with the job of education they are trying to do —that is, they should proceed slowly with . class structures rather than •y to rush ahead with inferior re-material buildings in order to in more pupils. somewhat revolutionary idea in re higher education will come operation in 1958 when the al will become co-educational. then a girls’ hostel about half le away from the present build will have been built and a an teacher and a matron will been installed. Except in al subjects, such as cooking and ig, the girls will share the ns of the boys. e school is at present in charge dr. lan L. Gray, BA, who recently returned to the school some months in New Zealand.

Gray and their four young ren have returned with him. It rgely due to Mr. Gray’s per ve methods that NZ Presby ns have provided Onesua with actor. . Gray is assisted in the school r. and Mrs. C. D. Johnson. The les of the European staff of ;stablishment are paid by the :h in New Zealand. The fees by the boys go entirely towards own maintenance. 3 Presbyterian Church in the Hebrides became autonymous )48 formerly it was part ne Presbyterian Mission. It ie ardent desire of New dean Presbyterians to further 3 education in the Group, and s and in other church projects ire still assisted financially and vise by the parent churches in alia and New Zealand. ! Presbyterian Mission has had and honourable service in the des and has been the chief, ometimes the only, British in on in the Condominium which sted itself in taking health is and education to the natives.