OUR SCHOOLS

Evening Star, Issue 16676, 7 March 1918, Page 2

OUR SCHOOLS

[Per United Press Association.] WELLINGTON. March 6. Speaking at. tho opening of an addition to the Karon School this afternoon, the ; Minister of Education said that demands ! were being made for now schools and blame was being attached to the Education I Department for not providing money to i enable old and out-of-date buildings to be replaced. The duty of replacing worn-out j schools was not an obligation on the department as since 1903th0 department! had provided an annual vote for that r e i °n *K number of veare allowed lor tho hio ot a wooden buildino- and a percentage of the capital value, and the boards had substantial balances in hand '• tor replacements. It had been pointed out I to the Minister that certain schools had been allowed to fall into disrepair. The Education Department, paid an annual grant to the boards for maintenance H e wanted to make these facts clear in order that tho people might understand the i-o= ; turn of the department, and the blame should not always be placed on the shoulders of the Minister. Dealing with the vexed question of school books, the Minister said that the parents of children attending the secondary schools had the most reason for complaints. He thought that too much freedom m the matter of the selection of hooks had been allowed. The controlling authorities now had jurisdiction over the selection Ho had a certain amount of control over the books for the primary schools because ho had to approve of a list from which books might be adopted by boards with the approval of inspectors. Regarding tho payment of teachers, ] )Q " said#he scale of salaries of primary school teachers was fixed by statute, but he hadlittle control over the salaries of secondary school teachers, and all he do was to see that thesvs teachers were paid certain minimum salaries, the fixing of tho minimum beinj left entirely to the high school authorities. He had through the' Government and Parliament made provision for large sums for education, and he thought it-desirable that the Education Department through the Minister, should have power to exercise more supervision over the expenditure in the interests of the taxpayers. It was not correct that the education'vote had been cut down, as last year's estimates showed a substantial increase on those for the previous year.