Grants not enough for books and materials

Press, 15 August 1984, Page 19

Grants not enough for books and materials

Among secondary schools, it is the big city schools which feel financially disadvantaged, according to Dr Colin Knight, regional superintendent of education' in Christchurch.

He says that small schools are funded on the basis that some costs are unavoidable, regardless ot size, and the grant per pupil is reduced as the school gets larger. Big schools such as Burnside (1950 students) and Aranui (over 1500) consequently get proportionately less money per pupil than small district high schools. An average secondary school in Christchurch would get a general purposes grant-about $45,000 to be spent on class materials, the grounds, caretaking, the library, teachers’ expenses, stationery, telephones, repairs, and new equipment. It would also get a free textbook grant of about $lB,OOO for textbooks and some duplicated material. It would then raise about $13,000 through “fees” paid by parents and spend it on clubs, sports, and trip subsidies, plus another $6OOO or more through donations, trading, and fund-raising for particular purposes. School “fees” for the 17 high schools represented by the Christchurch Secondary Schools Council range from $l5 to $3O, and are spent on such things as club and sports activities and extra library books.

Mr Malcolm Richards, general manager of the council, says that “fees” and fundraising by parents, pupils, and former pupils, would contribute a further amount equal to about 50 per cent of the Education Department grant. He says there is not enough in the general expenses grant to buy all the library books needed, and some of the money raised from parents is also needed for clasroom equipment. There is great emphasis these days on outdoor education, but not enough money in the grant for that either, says Mr Richards. All school sports are funded from the school “fee” account. “No school could offer the full education that it does without substantial input by the parents,” he says. “Every Minister of Education has said that there should be a parent contribution. “Since the 1970 s it has been accepted that boards could charge and accept these fees, but since that date there’s been a legal opinion that if the money is used for free education it conflicts with the free education section of the act, and couldn’t be enforced in the courts. “In recent times schools have found it a little more difficult to recover the fees, not because of

reluctance but because people face economic difficulties. Parents on the whole realise the need to make a contribution.” Some schools do better than others at . fund-raising, but Mr Richards says pupils of schools without their own outdoor education facilities do not miss out. Riccarton High School, for example, lets other schools use its Kokiri Lodge, near Lake Brunner. The Education Department’s own baseline survey of secondary schools, published in 1981, found that although the Government was allocating a great deal of money to secondary schools in 1975, and schools were raising money themselves, most schools listed lack of finance as “a major impediment to the achievement of their objectives.” The most serious lack of funds was for library books, and a quarter of all secondary schools found a serious lack of funds for text books. For classroom materials, schools found the most serious lack in science, woodwork, and metalwork. Some schools had a serious problem providing art paper, paste, and felt pens. The survey found that schools had to augment their grants with money from school “fees” and fund-raising to provide such extra facilities as swimming pools, gymnasiums, television sets, and extra library books. Most schools at that time raised between $lOOO and $5OOO by their own efforts through fairs and bring-and-buys, while some relied on profits from the school canteen and stationery shops, or raised money through social events such as dances and hangis. Some ran regular raffles or housie, and pupils helped with “work days” in the community. A few raised funds simply by an additional levy on parents, up to a total of about $6O. No significant correlation was found in the survey between the amount of finance a secondary school raised and. its socio-econo-mic category. “Schools in some high socio-economic areas raised very little or no money, while some schools in low socio-economic areas raised a great deal,” the report said. But it did find disparity in the amount and variety of equipment among different types of schools. Form 3 to 7 co-educational schools and boys’ schools with rolls of 1200 to 1400 in communities with a high socio-economic level had the best facilities, and small district high schools and area schools with rolls of under 300 were the most poorly equipped.