ECONOMY IN EDUCATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20989, 28 September 1931, Page 6

ECONOMY IN EDUCATION.

The resolution passed by the Auckland branch of the Federation of Teachers on the need to find ways and means for meeting the financial difficulties of the times is commendably framed. It acknowledges this as an "absolute necessity" and assures the Government of wholehearted co-operation in assisting duiing the period of stress. This evinces the right attitude of mind. The financial difficulties are serious and obvious, and no department of State can reasonably expect to bo exempt from the operation of measures to make ends meet. So long as that be taken for granted, there should be a serviceable result from the send ing by the branch of a deputation to wait on the Prime Minister and the Minister of Education. The question then to be discussed will be the measures of economy to be adopted. It is probable there will be differences of opinion, for experts in education are not always at one on mutters in their sphere, but this should not prevent grave consideration of any helpful suggestions made. Rightly, the resolution to be given detailed exposition emphasises the claims of the child and the desirability of adequate provision for education : the teaching profession is created to minister to those claims in the use of a provision as adequate as circumstances permit. Rightly, too, the resolution deprecates any change that will throw on the labour market a largo number of ill-equipped youths and girls ; that is a result to be contemplated with disfavour, and it is happily unlikely that any suggestion of the kind will have to be combated. In what are termed by the resolution "irreducible needs" there is offered a useful framework for delimiting the practical problem, and if it be used constructively by the deputation, having regard to the necessity for economy, a valuable contribution may be made to the inevitable discussion of ways and means.