Education cuts criticised

Press, 21 May 1982, Page 4

Education cuts criticised

Reducing the education vote would help make New Zealand “economically anaemic" for many years to come, Social Credit's education spokesman. Mr Richard Bach, said in Wellington yesterday. The advanced countrieswere not those with the greatest natural resources, but those with the greatest skills, he said. The present financial retrenchment was a public acknowledgement of past economic mismanagement.

he told the annual conference of the Association of Teachers in Technical Institutes. Later he said that education had a critical economic role as the main source of skills and ' trained talent. Social Credit believed that education was an investment. Mr Bach said that “maintenance learning” had been promoted in New Zealand in recent years. Such a cautious approach took no account of social and technological changes.

Tertiary services would have to be expanded, he said. While primary and secondary rolls were expected to drop over the next 10 years, rolls at technical institutes, community colleges, and the technical correspondence school would, increase from 24,000 to 35,000. . Learning should involve the community and take the future into account, said Mr Bach. Planning for innovative learning should begin now.