The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1932. EDUCATION ECONOMIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 238, 7 October 1932, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1932. EDUCATION ECONOMIES.

For the cause that Jacks assistance, For the tcromg that needs resistanoe, For (he future in the distance, Attd the good that we can do.

The second series of recommendations of the National Expenditure Commission for economy in education suggest, like the first, that the Commission reflects the views of the Department. The task of the Commission was to find ways of saving- money, and it is perhaps not surprising if in looking for them it overlooked certain considerations that cannot be measured in terms of pounds, shillings and pence. Unfortunately, however, sometimes these are just the factors that in education count for most.

The Commission strongly subscribes to the opinion that Education Boards, and apparently other governing bodies as well, should be abolished, and it recommends that the system be worked with a national Board of Education at the top, and a series of Committees or Councils at the bottom. The Commission uses the phrase "centralised control," but, lest it should be misunderstood, explains that it considers that increased responsibilities should devolve upon school committees or school councils. It is not stated, however, • what those increased responsibilities should be. It is not suggested in the present criticism of the Commission's findings that there are not too many governing bodies in our educational system, and that considerable economies could not be effected by amalgamation and co-ordination. What we have said, however, and say again, is that there has been no detailed estimate of what would be saved by centralisation, part of the price of which would be less local interest in education. It is contended that the work of local boards could be done much more cheaply in Wellington, and at least as efficiently. This is largely assumption. Granted that there is a good deal of duplication under the present system, the staff of the Department would certainly have to be enlarged to cope with the extra work, and local matters that are now settled by application to the Boards concerned would have to be referred to Wellington, with inevitable delay and exasperation. It seems to be a complaint that boards employ architects. Supposing a school in the backblocks of Auckland needs painting; is it not better that application phould be made to the Education Board at Auckland than to the Department in Wellington 1 ? The Auckland Grammar Schools Board is a particularly interesting example of cheap and efficient local control. At a low administrative cost it manages five schools and looks after a good deal of endowment property. Does anyone believe that all this could be done at onco as cheaply and as satisfactorily by the Department? The Commission, by the way, recommends the abolition of certain education reserves, and the merging of such areas into the Crown land estate. Here, again, the Commission does not attach

sufficient importance to imponderable factors. The mere fact that a reserve exists for a specific purpose is a sign to the community that that purpose is important. If such specific endowments are abolished, a link with the past is broken and something has been done to discourage the setting aside of wealth for the benefit of education. The Commission is justified in recommending a re-survey of all educational facilities in tho Dominion. This should include an overhaul of secondary education and more drastic restriction, in the upper grades at any rate, of the number of pupils. This would mean fewer schools and a higher average of work. All this could be done, however, without further centralisation or the creation of another National Board. It should be done at once, and the new policy made more or less permanent. The educational world is entitled to reasonable security of tenure, and should not be dug up every now and then to see how it is getting on.