EDUCATION BUDGET

Press, Volume C, Issue 29673, 17 November 1961, Page 16

EDUCATION BUDGET

Call For Big Increase (N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, Nov. 16. Family benefits and food subsidies should be cut to provide extra funds for education, said Mr N. G. Smith, the secretary, at the quarterly meeting of the Auckland School , Committees’ Association tonight. He also urged that £4 million be transferred from the military budget as New Zealand’s expenditure of £3O million was a drop is the bucket, and did nothing to serve world peace. Mr Smith was supporting a motion calling on the Government to devote a greater proportion of its resources so that children could have an adequate education, this to be achieved by recruiting more teachers and training college and university staff, by reducing the size of classes and by building the necessary training colleges, university and schools. The resolution, which was passed unanimously. also urged higher starting salaries and adequate qualification allowances for teachers unless the standards of the profession were to deteriorate seriously. The resolution will be forwarded to the Dominion federation. Mr Smith said he thought the Minister of Education (Mr Tennent) should speak up more for education. "He seems to think the remarks made by teachers were a personal attack,’’ said Mr Smith.