Education protest prompts big rally

Press, 26 July 1980, Page 6

Education protest prompts big rally

Cathedral Square echoed to the shouts of more than 2000 people last evening in Christchurch’s biggest education rally since the 19305.

The ‘‘March for Education”! attracted support from tertiary students, kindergarten, primary, and secondary teachers, and school pupils. Organised marchers from the University of Canterbury, the Christchurch Polytechnic, Lincoln College, and Christchurch Teachers’ Col-; lege, converged on Cathedral Square chanting education fight-back slogans. The rally held a forum in the Square where speakers; and a street theatre groupj addressed the crowd. The! march then . proceeded, through the city to the Bridge; of Remembrance. [ The marchers’ aim was to! draw attention to Govern-• ment cuts in education spending. I The education officer for! the University of Canterbury] (Mr B. Kingsbury) said thel Minister of Education (Mr Wellington) had “severely; distorted” the true position of education funding. “The true increase in education spending is only 15.7

per cent, substantially less than the March quarter infla-

i campaign, started last year and had gathered momentum 1 with support from the Post2 Primary Teachers’ Association and the Education i Institute, which were running (similar campaigns, said Mr >; Kingsbury. There was now wide . support for the Government s to give a higher priority to - education when allocating its -[finance, he said. »i The Christchurch march coincidea with marches in ■ the other main centres to f;mark the day as “National >j Education Day”—to empha- > sise the fact that- one New ,; Zealander in every three was fj involved in some aspect of 1 formal education. ■ A similar protest was •! planned for Auckland, and >;the police closed Upper •I Queen Street with barricades fearing that a large student I 1 demonstration might disrupt , the National Party’s fortyfourth annual conference in tlae Auckland Town Hall. I But only about 200 demonstrators turned up in the cold ; temperatures to protest at , what they said were cuts in the Government’s education spending.

j tion rate of 18.4 per cent,” he said. I These cuts in education i spending had made “savage inroads” into every sector of] New Zealand’s education] services. | The president of the; Christchurch Teacher Trai- ; nees’ Association (Ms M. iGoldrick) told the marchers ‘they should continue to in-i 'form the “ignorant adminis-l < trators” of the effects these! j cuts were having on educa | tion. ! ; The decline in the level of; i funding had caused serious! j teacher shortages, inadequate! (teacher trainee allowances,' !and a reduced intake of] ] teacher trainees. [ There was also a poor} [staff-pupil ratio in kinder-, gartens, school buildings; were in poor repair, class-1 rooms were overcrowded,! there were equipment and 1 book shortages in schools, and a reduced student tertiary bursary. Communities, rather than the Government, were paying more and more towards the running costs of schools, Ms Goldrick said. The ‘‘Education Fightback”