SAVE OUR SCHOOLS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 78, 2 April 1932, Page 11

SAVE OUR SCHOOLS.

DANGERS TQ EDUCATION. PLEA FOR PARENTAL INTEREST. NEED FOR UNITED OPINION. (By PARENT.) It is inevitable that the annual vote for State education will be reduced. The Economy Commission has made definite recommendations, which seem to have been inspired to a great extent by the central Department. The Teachers' Institute has followed with counterproposals, aimed primarily at protecting the salaries of the profession. Both Department and institute will naturally do 'heir conflicting utmost to impress their own viewpoints upon Parliament. Meanwhile there is the danger that those most ritally concerned, the parents, will make no representations. They, in the long run, may be the sufferers while a central authority struggles for more power under the plea of economy, and an organised body of teachers battles for unreduced pay for their undoubtedly valuable services. The commission urges the raising of the permissible age of entry to schools to six years. Teachers see in this a 12 per cent decrease in school rolls, and the probability of about 700 of their number being out of employment. Actually, it is the weight of parental opinion that should swing the Government's decision upon a point so important that it harks back to the days of 1877, and the battle-royal then fought in the House over the establishment of free, secular and compulsory education. The Act of that time allowed parents to send children to school as soon as their fifth birthday, had arrived. The proposal now being discussed trenches on a privilege granted in those conservative days. Who Should Decide ?

Surely the parents themselves, not the Director of Education or the Teachers' Institute, should be the arbiters on this point. They have their one opportunity at the annual meetings of householders this month, and they should certainly make the most of it. A Dominion-wide series of resolutions carried by parents should give a reliable public viewpoint upon the extent and direction of economies in education, and the opportunity lies with the executives of various school committees' associations to set the ball rolling. The Department wishes the abolition of boards. The Institute champions their retention in a modified form, and urges this. But as the system is paid for by the people themselves, it is their opinion upon control which should guide future legislation. Again, the teachers' organisation declares that a sum of £200,000 can be saved in the building fund. If this can be achieved only through the continued use of insanitary or condemned buildings which are themselves a menace to the physical and mental welfare of the children, their proposal may be open to serious objection. It is for parents to guard against a move that may bring about such a result. Whether it will do so, is not clear until full details of the means whereby £200,000 can be saved are given to those who should know and weigh them. Reduction in Grants. So it is with the Institute's scheme for saving £40,000 by the purchase of supplies in bulk, and a reduction in the cost of school cleaning. The latter implies a proportionate reduction in the grants to school committees, which have already been subject to a cut. They now find it difficult to make ends meet, particularly since subsidies on voluntary contributions have ceased, while in many cases demands for funds to support dental clinics absorb all that can be obtained from the depleted purses of parents. There has been a suggestion that the School Journal should.be paid for by pupils, and that the committees should be the medium for securing and forwarding the money. Here once more is a matter that is of chief concern to I parents and committees.

A Plan of Campaign. Not for very many years have there been such matters of moment to be considered by householders at the annual meetings of school committeesj never before have they had such opportunity to put forward a parents' policy dealing with education control and expenditure. Among other matters, decisive expression should be secured upon the retention, amendment, or abolition of boards; the raising of the age of admission; a satisfactory and universal means of maintaining dental clinics; the advisability of charging for school leaving ceitincates; the wisdom of throwing several financial burdens now borne by the Department on to parents themselves; the necessity for simplifying all the complicated mass of returns that adds to administrative costs, both directly and indirectly; the propriety of maintaining a grading system, with all the expense and misdirected effort it entails in inspectorial work, transfer of teachers, printing, correspondence, etc. Other points might be added to this comprehensive list. All are matters of general import. They cannot be settled m two hours, but much could be done in the way of securing real public opinion j*. preparatory steps are taken immediately. The cause of the children justifies the effort.