COST OF EDUCATION

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 308, 23 September 1932, Page 2

COST OF EDUCATION

Economy is Possible LORD IRWIN’S OPINION Lord Irwin, President of the Board of Education, speaking at a luncheon in connection with the City of London vacation course in education, said ho believed that the economic storm of which this country had felt the full force last year was beginning to blow itself out. There were openings in the clouds—the agreement at Lausanne, the ’ success of the War Loan Conversion, the “recognition by European countries, tardy or incomplete as to many of those present it still might seem, of the essential necessity of readjusting views about disarmament”; the promise of Ottawa. Those symptoms were encourI aging, but the depression still held and was likely to continue for some time. In one respect perhaps the present difficulties might hold something of a blessing in disguise for those concerned with education, if they showed them that money and educational results were not always or necessarily coincident or synonymous terms. They would have to look round for means to make the money go farther, and, given cooperation, ho did not ’believe it impossible to do this without allowing shortsighted people to inflict serious or lasting damage on the educational system. It was no matter for surprise that people who had no source of income except fitful dividends or business and commerce that had melted away should look with somewhat jealous eyes upon those whose income, though not lavish according to the standards of more prosperous days, was yet regular and not liable to the same uncertainties. He did not forget that that Income had already undergone reduction along with that of other public servants, and was subject to the same income tax as applied to the rest of the community, but It was only fair to recognise that such jealousy and criticism existed, and that it would be a bad day for education if public opinion generally ever came to the point of questioning the disinterested pursuit on the part of teachers of their professional ideals. In bis opinion the best answer teachers as a class could make to such criticism was to let the country see 200,000 teachers carrying on with their daily Jobs, and leaving no room for doubt, that although they were human like everybody else they were as ready as any section of the community to take their fair share In patriotic effort and .sacrifice.