DEMANDS OF EDUCATION

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 2125, 17 May 1922, Page 5

DEMANDS OF EDUCATION

QUESTION OP FINANCE. (Per Press Association > WELLINGTON, Last Night. The Minister of Education, speaking to-daj- at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Educational Institute, reminded delegates that all educational movements were governed by the question of finance. . The. expenditure on education th ; s year totalled three and a-half millions, of which salaries accounted for two millions. The three and a-half millions were allocated as under:—Primary education, 7S per cent; secondary education. 9 per cent; technical education, 3 per cent; university, 3 per cent: special schools, 2 per cent; boarding out, 5 per cent. This expenditure of three and a-half millions was, he held, justified. He was prepared to stand by that in Parliament. We were certainly not spending 1 too much on educat'on. In America, junior high schools had sprung- ahead with alarming success. Ten years ago there were only 14 of such schools. Now there were over 1000. Australia was also taking up this movement, and he thought the time was now ripo for New Zealand, at least, to make an experiment In this direction, and that the best step would be to establish intermediate schools, bridging the gulf between the primary and secondary systems. It had been reported that 40 per cent, of the pupils left school without attaining the proficiency certificate. This was a positive danger. They should gather in the loud-mouthed demagogues who were loitering at. the street corners, and give them a chance to make crooC by the medium of these schools. They should not be allowed to prey upon others. America was spending money like water on education.