Abstract
Of the children who left Dunedin schools in 1935, 31.9 per cent preferred to try and obtain work. The main study will be concerned with these children. It is generally recognised that a big proportion of pupils do not continue with full-time education. Why is this the ease? What are the reasons underlying the decision made by the parents, when the children have completed their primary school careers? This is the problem before the writer.
Linked closely with this is the question of fitness for post-primary education. Does the present system sort out the children at this stage into those who should go on to further formal education and those who should not? Is the present set of examinations or tests a sufficiently reliable guide of such a classification? Would society as a whole benefit if all the pupils of Form II, 1935 were given a further education of a scholastic or technical type?