‘Elitist’ schools not wanted

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33934, 29 August 1975, Page 10

‘Elitist’ schools not wanted

(From our education reporter)

WELLINGTON, August 28. State secondary teacher representatives today expressed complete disillusionment with the attitude of Roman Catholic education authorities and the Government to proposals to integrate private and State schools.

At the annual conference of the Post-Primarv Teachers’ Association the 105 delegates representing 12,893 State secondary teachers voted iunanimously to resist any attempts to set up a dual system of education which allowed for the existence of integrated schools with privileges and exclusiveness underwritten by the State. In contrast to last year’s conference of the P.P.T.A. when optimism was expressed over the possibilitv of endling 98 years of division in this country’s education sysItem, the meeting today was pessimistic over the possibility of integration proposals [succeeding. I The P.P.T.A.’s change of attitude was largely brought about by the submissions made on Wednesdav bv the Roman Catholic Education Council to the Educational Services Committee, which is considering the Private Schools Conditional Integration Bill. These submissions, the I P.P.T.A. believes, negated more than two years of work [by State and private school [interests on integration proposals. ' ‘AGREEMENT BROKEN’ The fact that Roman Catholic bishops wished to retain the right to control schools which integrated was unacceptable to the P.P.T.A. and the insistence of the Catholic authorities on this point and the right to veto was at variance with a previous agreement which the Catholic representatives had! given at the time of the State!

aid conference in December last year. The P.P.T.A.’s chief negotiator on the integration proposals and incoming president of the association (Mi G. Warner) received the overwhelming support of the conference when he suggested that Roman Catholic education authorities “wanted to keep their cake and eat it i too.” “No private schools have [ever been asked to declare their assets. We don’t even know whether the integraition proposals are really 1 based on need. The Catholic I submissions have shattered [ our hopes and I am very suspicious of the political assurances given to the Roman Catholic Church by the former Prime Minister, Mr [Kirk, and by Mr Rowling,” Mr Warner said. Mr Warner criticised the! [insistence of private schools! lon a policy of preferential!

enrolment at schools which integrated with the State. ‘PHONEY ATTITUDES’ “If integration is not genuine then the phoney attitudes we now see coming to the surface are not acceptable. They can’t have 10 per cent State aid and exclusiveness underwritten by the State.” It seemed obvious, Mr Warner said, that the Government would increase the level of State aid to private schools to 50 per cent.

“The politicians are more interested in votes than in giving a decent education to all this country’s children. The Labour Party is bidding unashamedly for the Roman Catholic vote and the National Party is sitting on the fence. There is not one of our 87 members of Parliament who will publicly oppose State aid and the [Minister of Education has re-

fused to give a clear answer on the possibility of State aid and, integration continuing side by side. We refuse to accept this.” ‘ELITIST SCHOOLS’ The P.P.T.A. had been openly insulted by representatives of what Mr Warner termed “the elitist private schools.”

“They have the spurious notion that their schools provide higher standards of morality than we provide in State schools and base their education on out-dated nineteenth century beliefs. The controllers of these schools are an aristocracy of land agents and second-hand car dealers, who are fighting to retain exclusiveness using State funds.”

The conference agreed that if the Governmnet increased the level of State aid to private schools New Zealand faced the danger of developing a system of dual education such as in New South Wales where the State schools were “the poor relations” of exclusive Statesunnorted nrivate schools.

Prolonged applause was given to Mr Warner when he received unanimous support for a motion calling on the Government to abolish State aid within a period of two years after the date on which the Private Schools Conditional Integration Bill came into operation. UNANIMOUS

The conference also unanimously supported a motion that P.P.T.A. delegates before the Education Select Committee oppose any provisions in the integration bill which incorporated privileges not available to State schools in the area of preferential enrolment of pupils in integrated schools. The Government was urged to give the bill urgency so that it might pass through all its stages in the present I Parliamentary session. 1