The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1931. THREAT TO FREE KINDERGARTENS.

Evening Star, Issue 20983, 23 December 1931, Page 8

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1931. THREAT TO FREE KINDERGARTENS.

“ Economy, what crimes are wrought in thy name!” might bo the comment provoked by the Minister of Education in discontinuing the grants to the Free Kindergarten Associations of the dominion. No doubt something has to suffer from,the saving that is required in the big bill for education, but it seems cruelty that the sword should he made to fall so destructively for these innocents. The kindergartens may be the most helpless extension of the education system, but they are not the least useful part of it. If the assault which is now threatened is not modified, there would appear to be no alternative to the cessation of the activities of at least half of them; and there are not now too many—there aro not half enough. The massacre that has been decreed for institutions catering for poor children promises to save the Government the petty sum of about £5,000 a year. There is surely disproportion here between the benefit and the injury.

The kindergartens are not a refinement of the system, a mere sentimental growth, as some people might assume. They aro not new. They have been approved, recognised, and assisted for nearly thirty years by the Government. ..Those in Dunedin—the oldest—began forty-two years ago. Normally they would he an integral part of the department’s system. A great deal of money has been ’saved to the Government by the .extent —roughly one-half—-to which they have been established and supported by public donations. We aro proud to think that this paper was very intimately associated with their foundation and early growth. “ The free kindergarten movement in New Zealand began ” —an official report reads—“in Dunedin in 1889. It had its origin in a thought. The Rev. Dr Waddell, passing up and down Walker street, longed in some way to help the waifs and strays who played up apd down in somewhat unsanitary conditions in that neighbourhood. He mentioned the matter to Mr Mark Cohen, who said immediately: ‘ Have a free kindergarten!’ ” And so the movement began, on the lines of a service that had just been inaugurated in America. There are six free kindergartens in Dunedin, of which the buildings of three are owned by the association. Two buildings were erected out of popular subscriptions, subsidised by the Government, and the third was the gift of the Hudson family. For the maintenance of the six the Dunedin Association raises roughly £I,OOO a year from the public, and the Government has provided approximately another £I,OOO by a capitation grant of £4 a head per pupil. There are 320 pupils in Dunedin.

Tho association is only touching tho fringe of work that ought to be done.

Lack of funds Las prevented it from doing more. This year the capitation grant was reduced by the 10 per cent, cut, and salaries of the teachers, which wero always small, suffered accordingly. The schools, providing mainly for poor children of ages from three to five, are irrespective of class or creed, and their hours aro from nine to twelve. The most devoted voluntary work has always been given to their control. Before a school can be opened and receive a subsidy the Government has to approve of the site and the necessity for it in that locality. Mothers’ clubs work in conjunction with the kindergartens, and keep touch with the parents and homes. Delicate children are cared for, and milk given them. There is cooperation also with the Plunket Society. The teaching is more individual than is possible in the larger schools. When one enters some homes in Dunedin, made more public by the recent depression, where there is hardly a stick of furniture or a square inch of reading matter or a single picture on the walls, and perhaps no playing ground but the street, one realises the necessity for more of these kindergartens if hundreds of present children are to grow up to live lives that will bo an advantage to the community. Where the system now' has its best working, the children cany the refining influences which they receive into their homes. There are private kindergartens, of course, for better off- children. Now the edict that has come from the Education Department threatens to reduce the free schools which it will be possible to carry on to half—those which are owned by the association—and possibly less in the other centres where they aro established. The blow is more harsh coming as it does with no warning. After this current year the subsidy is to be discontinued. If that ukase holds, the associations will be unable to keep their contracts with teachers, many of whom must be unemployed throughout the dominion. Students in training will be unable to complete their course, and if, when full work is resumed, there should be a lack of teachers with the necessary specialised training, the lasting injury to the associations can be readily imagined. If the economy which saves so little to the Government had hit them only half as hard they might have made good some of its injury by public appeals, but this blow is crippling. We hope yet that the Government may be able to mingle mercy with its economy.