Cash short, so courses go

Press, 4 October 1977, Page 3

Cash short, so courses go

PA Hamilton All primary teacher courses run by the South Auckland Education Board have been scrapped because the board has run out of money for in-service training. The board will be forced to go further into debt when it resumes in-service training next March. The board’s course controller, Mr John Dowling, was not aware of the serious cash problem until he was contacted by the northern regional office last Monday After being told the in-service training kitty was empty he decided to close all courses.

Teachers turning up to courses last week were told to go back to their classrooms. All had made arrangements for their classes to be supervised in their absence.

“We have an allocation of funds and it had run . but. We’ve got no money to pay teachers’ travelling allowances. It’s as simple as that,” Mr Dowling said. Asked how the situation had been allowed to get as serious without his knowing, Mr Dowling said it took time for the spending analysis to be compiled by the board’s computers. He estimated that “far: fewer” than 100 courses would have been affected by The early curtailment. “We’re here to provide as

much service as possible, but we have to work within a financial limit. The teachers’ mileage allowance keeps going up.” A strong protest has been voiced by the Wairarapa branch of the Educational Institute against the Government’s moves to curtail the issue of movie films to schools.

A letter of protest has been sent to the Member of Parliament for Wairarapa, Mr Ben Couch, in which the branch president, Mr L. H. Stockbridge, said: “the National Film Library maini tained a free issue! system I until 1976. Schools were en- : titled to fortnightly issues ordered one term ahead. It was also possible to obtain additional films by making special requests. “This gave a degree of flexibility, enabling to see films most appropriate to their educational programme." Mr Stockbridge said that in 1976 the Government had fixed an annual subscription of $l5 per school.

“At the same time there was a substantial increase in postal charges. We now have the National Film Library announcing that special film issues are to be restricted, to two such issues a term.

“This will inevitably result in a deterioration in the quality of programmes offered in our schools,” the letter said.