ALLOWANCES TO SCHOOL COMMITTEES

Evening Post, Volume xciv, Issue 73, 24 September 1917, Page 7

ALLOWANCES TO SCHOOL COMMITTEES

The Canterbury Trades and Labour Council has received . a reply from the Minister ■o£ Education to a protest against the insufficient allowance to school committees for the purpose of meeting the incidental expenses in connection with the sohoole, and to the further complaint of the dilapidated condition, bad ventilation, low roofs, wormeaten woodwork and insanitary surroundings of some of the schools. The Minister points out that the grants paid over to Education Boards are fixed by the eighth •chedule to the Act, but boards axs under no obligation to confine their scale to the amount of the grant. The schedule referred to, he saye, places the finances of the boards in a better position than before, besides which the Act provides for payment of subsidies on voluntary contributions to publio schools, a privilege previously confined to secondary schools. The Department was now_ paying out considerable sums as subsidies to moneys raised by committees for ground improvement, school libraries, and other items' of incidental expenditure, thus providing a valuable supplement to committees who are prepared to help themselves. But, in the present exceptional circumstances, and as a purely temporary measure, the. Minister is prepared to consider the question of including in the Estimates a small additional gront to be made payable during the ■ ourroncy of the war to relieve tha position. As for the faulty construction, defective ventilation, etc., of school buildings, these were matters for the Education Board, but he was prepared to admit that there were evidences of neglect,_ and this matter was engaging his attention.