EDUCATION COST

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 246, 25 July 1940, Page 3

EDUCATION COST

IS VALUE BEING RECEIVED? QUERY IN THE HOUSE. (Per Press Association). WELLINGTON, July 24. The Education Department was spending enormous sums ol money and it was difficult for a layman to form a sound impression as to whether the State was getting good value for the money expended, said Mr V\ . A. Bodkin (National, Central Otago) when the Departmental vote of £4,630.000 was under discussion in the House of Representatives to-night. He suggested that before the'Minister of Education could form a judgment he would have to institute a system to check up on the work done. They bad a cheek when there was a proficiency examination, but now that this had boon dispensed with it was necessary to have a check. The Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes (National, Hurunui) drew attention to a comparatively recent ’bus accident at Cheviot, when an obsolute ’bus was in use and capsized with 30 children in it. They were close, ho said, to having a horrible tragedy. The children bad to be taken out through the windows and the windshield. What was the provision for compensation in such cases? he asked.

The Hon. H. G. R. Mason said that the Transport Department was very careful now in respect to ’buses, and compensation was paid up to a certain limit.

The Prime Minister said that much more attention was now given on account of the transport regulations, which had been considerably tightened up. Mr Bodkin, drawing attention to the vote of £12.000 for the Workers’ Educational Association, claimed that more value could bo obtained from correspondence schools. Mr A. H. Nordmeyer (Labour, Oamaru attention to the large amount the State paid in training students for the teaching profession, and suggested that there should be some guarantee tliatl teachers should remain until the State got some retard. His remarks, he said, were occasioned by the large number of attractive young women teachers who married immediately after concluding the training course.

Mr J. A. Roy (National, Clutha) said a complaint had been made to him, he did not know how true it was, that a child had come home and had said the teacher had been making statements that were definitely disloyal. . Mr Mason said he thought it unfair of Mr Roy to make such a statement public without first confirming it. He gave an assurance that he would do all in his power to see that no teacher was employed who made disloyal statements. The vote was passed.