EDUCATION BOARD MEMBERS

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29178, 12 April 1960, Page 19

EDUCATION BOARD MEMBERS

Election By Public Suggested “The Press” Special Service WELLINGTON, April 11. “Committees of inquiry inevitably prescribe the remedy after the damage has been substantially done,” says a note to a remit to be considered at the annual conference of the Associated Chambers of Commerce in Napier. The remit seeks a recommendation to the Committee of Inquiry on Education that members of education boards be elected by public vote so that public opinion may have continuous and direct influence on education policy. “Chambers of Commerce have legitimate concern in education policy,” says the note. “It falls to their members to provide employment for a large proportion of those leaving school, college or university; It should be the anxious responsibility of members that those young people who enter their employment should be as well equipped as possible to pursue their vocation. "The present administrative bodies do not, through their elective procedures, provide a strong and effective method for the expression of public opinion. There is no direct representation of ‘consumer’ interest.” Education boards should be reinforced by the inclusion of persons other than those immediately and directly concerned with education, it is claimed. Another remit asks the conference to approve in principle the establishment of a fund from which a senior scholarship award could regularly be made to provide financial assistance to suitable applicants wishing to pursue higher commercial studies either in New Zealand or abroad. The size of the fund envisaged is one from which a grant of £4OO to £5OO could be made each year or second year.