Laboratory costs give concern

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32634, 16 June 1971, Page 16

Laboratory costs give concern

The Aranui High School’s board of governors is considering asking parents of pupils taking science at the school to pay 50c per head towards the cost of laboratory equipment

The board yesterday received a letter from the head of the science department (Mr R. H. Hickford) in which he said that the prohibitive cost of apparatus made it impossible for his department to keep within the annual allocation for laboratory equipment made by the Education Department. Raised two years ago Mr Hickford said that two years ago the allocation for each laboratory was raised by the headmaster (Mr W. J. A. Brittenden) from $l4O to $lBO. It now stood at s2oo—slooo for the school’s five laboratories, or about $1 for each pupil (as recommended by the inspectorate). During the last 10 years the cost of basic apparatus had more than doubled, in spite of group bulk buying and the great increase in cheaper Japanese and Chinese apparatus, Mr Hickford said. This, combined with the greater number of pupils taking science (it was now the largest department in the school in terms of pupilperiod) and the greatly increased range of experimental work encouraged by new syllabuses, had made the situation desperate. “All but spent” At this stage of the year, Mr Hickford said, he had ail but spent the $lOOO allocated for 1971. In 1967-68-69 he managed to keep within.his budget, but last year overspent it about $lOO. With nearly eight months of this fiscal year to go the science department required between $3OO and $4OO. “The situation is so bad that I am thinking in terms of replacing science for some pupils with mathematics. The Education Department would be satisfied—but would the parents and pupils concerned and would our maths department accept the type of pupil I am thinking of?” Mr Hickford said the school could hot function within its present allocation

and continue to provide science based on a full programme of practical work for all pupils. “The solution is not really a reduction in the amount of science taught, but ip the allocation, which I am fully aware can be achieved only if the over-all grant to the school from the department is increased,” he said.

After consultation with the parent-teacher association, the board intends to write to parents of science pupils asking for the fee and explaining that it would be levied on a basis similar to the extra money paid by art, typing, and woodwork pupils for material used.