Programme on education cuts

Press, 2 October 1979, Page 11

Programme on education cuts

PA Wellington Educational leaders want to show New Zealanders the effect of educational cuts. Educational Institute officers have come up with a cartoon and colourslide show for public showing at schools. It is called “What did you learn in school today?” Wellington handbills describe it as “a programme about diminishing educational opportunities in State schools.’ ’ A specially written

theme song will play throughout the presentation while animated cartoons and photographs taken in New' Zealand schools are flashed in sequence on a screen. They tell of staffing shortages, reduced departmental services, and equipment in-

adequacies. In one part the soundtrack tells of two copies of an expensive Education Department film on science that are sitting unused in the National Film Library because there is no-one to distribute it.

The institute hired a public-relations firm to make the programme.

It was launched at a special showing for the news media, teachers, and Education Department officials in Wellington on Sunday.

A liaison officer with the institute, Miss Carol Hicks, said the programme was the beginning of the second stage of the institute’s fight against education cuts. The first stage had involved issuing news statements and trying to get wide news-media coverage. In the second phase, the institute would concentrate on its own material, such as the programme, building up to the election I in 1981.