Restraints on education

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34128, 14 April 1976, Page 22

Restraints on education

(N Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON. April 13. The Minister of Education (Mr Gandar) tonight gave a warning that he would announce curbs on Government expenditure on education within the next week or so. He told the annua] meeting of the Wellington Principals’ Association that, quite apart from his own strong convictions about the importance of education. “I can. not agree with thhose who! say that education is too important to suffer any scrutiny! or restraint at all.” Tn arriving at the decisions to curb expenditure.! the Government had done everything possible to ensure; that levels of expenditure could be restrained without] the sacrifice of policies built up over .he vears. “The priority that the Government attache'- to education will be apparent when the restraints on educational expenditure are comnarwi; with restraints that will be required of various other public functions.” He said that wherever possible ways had been soueht of making savings by slowing 1 and pruning rather than by] eliminating.

A matter of concern to the Government was in-service training, and it would like to establish whether practices that had proved to be satisfactory in previous years were still equally so. I “Perhaps there could be a case for more school based in-service work,” Mr Gandar! said.