Education cuts may mean fewer teachers — professor

Press, 18 August 1979, Page 6

Education cuts may mean fewer teachers — professor

The Government’s cuts inii education spending might l mean a big reduction in thejl number of teachers em-, ployed in primary and sec- i ondary schools, according toi Professor Graham Nuthall, al! professor of education at the; Ihuversity of Canterbury. ;l But the Minister of Educa-i' tion (Mr Wellington) hasi said that Professor Nuthall’s ii argumet ts are based on a I false comparison of the edu-[< cation vote in the 1978 andii 1979 Budgets. i Professor Nuthall said theji $938 million education vote i for the coming year was I! about the same, in dollar] i terms, as for last year. In |; terms of actually running jl schools and paying teachers/ it was a considerable reduction. I Indications, with regard to 1 ! inflation, salary increases'| and the exchange rate, were; for an effective reduction of!: about 17 per cent, or sl4l!' million, he said. i A 17 per cent cut in edu- i cation spending was the I eqiuvalent of dismissing 90 1 per cent of secondary teach- i ers, or 62 per cent of prim-:: ary teachers. Professor ii Nuthall said. 'I Government estimates, he 11

said, showed that the cuts would be made in the numbers or salaries of teachers —the most expensive area in jrunning education. i The planned cuts were j $3.5 million off the cost of ; providing primary school teacthers, $3 million off seu i ondary teachers, and $2 milllion off teachers for other (institutions. I Assuming that the Government did not take into account salary increases, the .reductions would be about ,250 secondary and 300 prim!ary teachers, said Professor ! Nuthall. The reduction in (teacher numbers would be I greater if pay rises such as (the 4.5 per cent general order were accounted for. This was on top of a (present shortage of about 200 secondary teachers reported by school principals. The total reduction in the I school building programme ; was, with inflation taken 'into account, about 25 per cent, or $2O million, said ■Professor Nuthall. I The effect of this reduction would not be felt as ■ much as a cut in teacher (numbers. However, an effective reduction of 6 per cent, or $2.5 million in the provi-

sion of books and materials would be felt by children and parents. Parents, who were already paying nearly half the day-to-day running costs of secondary schools, could expect to provide even more in the coming year. The effective cut in education spending meant the Government had “singled out the nation’s schools for special attention,” said Professor Nuthall. It was a matter of deliberate policy, not economic necessity. “It has been argued that the cuts in spending on education are part of a necessary reduction in all Government expenditure. This is not true. Government income and expenditure; are going up, not down,” he said. Professor Nuthall pointed to other departments, including Social Welfare and Health, which had had increases to be paid for by increasing taxation 22 per cent this year. Mr Wellington said that Professor Nuthall based his whole argument on a comparison of last year’s total expenditure figure with this year’s voted figure. “Education is yet to receive its share of the Supplementary Estimates. Last year that share was $9O million,” Mr Wellington said.

“The only true comparison can be made comparing like with like, last year’s voted expenditure with this year’s. On that basis, education spending rose 10.8 per cent. This means that education spending has kept pace with inflation.

“Professor Nuthall’s other observations are as astray as his basic premise. “There was an increase of 145 in the number of permanent full-time teachers employed in the State system between July 1978 and July 1979. The total number of positions filled in secondary schools has risen from 11,300 in March, 1978, to an estimated 12,680 in March this year,” Mr Wellington said.

In the year from July, 1978, to July, 1979, the number of primary school teachers had risen 294; included in this fugure were full-time, part-time, long-term relieving, and manual teachers.

“I cannot accept that parents are supplementing the running cost of secondary schools 50 per cent. To begin with, lighting and heating costs are totally in-flation-proof. There was an average increase in the general expenses grant last year of over 20 per cent and about another 9 per cent his year,” Mr Wellington said.