EDUCATIONAL COSTS

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26729, 13 May 1952, Page 6

EDUCATIONAL COSTS

GRANTS HELD TO BE DISPROPORTIONATE PRIMARY PUPILS’ CLAIMS "The Press’- Special Service . WELLINGTON, May 12. A new deal for primary educatior was requested by the president (Mr A Thompson, of Marton) in his addresi to the New Zealand Educational Institute's conference in Wellington to-day The present costs a head at various levels in education were quoted:— University, £99 (of which £BO is Government grant, £l6 is tuition fees and about-£3 endowment fees), postprimary, £47; primary, £22 9s. “It is recognised, of course, that in some respects the cost of educating an older pupil must be heavier than for a younger one," Mr Thompson said. “The post-primary pupil, for instance, occupies more working and more playing space than his younger brother in the primary school. His studies In the sciences involve the provision of costly laboratory equipment, his library books are more expensive, but In the main fuel, lighting, and cleaning costs do approximate. “As a headmaster of a school with both a primary and a post-primary department, I wopld say that the primary pupil is less generously provided for than his post-primary counterpait. Nor can I reconcile myself to the fact that the salary scale for teachers recognises a differential in favour of post-primary teachers on the sole ground of the greater age of the pupil. “If we examine the Budgets of 1941 and 1951 we find that the education vote has risen from £4,250.000 to £16,000,000. This substantial increase would seem significant of promise of better things, but when one considers: (a) the very substantial rise in the school population and the consequent need for new schools at all levels- (b> the extension of the education field; <c) the degree of depreciation of the monetary unit that has taken place during the decade and its effect on costs, the increase is not nearly so striking. “If w.e examine the share that came to primary education in those years, we find the following:—in 1941, of a total vote of £4,250,000, primary education received £2.500.000, representing approximately 59 per cent, of the' total vote. In 1951, the primary share rose to £6.000.000, but this £6,000,000 represents only 37| per cent, of the total £16.000,000 vote

“And this disproportionate rise has occurred, although the primary school population has shown a greater degree of expansion during that period than has either the post-primary or the university populations,” Mr Thompson said.