THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 1932. ECONOMY IN EDUCATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21132, 15 March 1932, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 1932. ECONOMY IN EDUCATION.

At a time of urgent need for national economy no avenue of expenditure should escape scrutiny, no department be deemed immune from reduction. Nor is it to be said that already so much has been saved in education expenditure that a lialt should be called in retrenchment. Credit is due to the Minister and his departmental officers for the reduction of about £1850,000 of which he gave particulars lately, but the National Expenditure Commission has presented an impressive case tor its recommendation of a further saving of £369,950. The commissioners express their conviction that this saving can be effected without greatly impairing the efficiency of the system. Expenditure has been lavish, some of it carelessly lavish, and the Dominion must make up its mind, in the present emergency, to a reduction commensurate with the resources of tho country. The commission recommends certain reductions that are undoubtedly drastic and entail difficulty in their application. An outstanding item of suggested saving is the closing of the teacher-training colleges at Wellington and Dunedin. This invites local opposition in the districts directly served by 'them, and the recommendation necessitates thought of means to meet the requirements of trainees offering from these localities. The leading facts are that the cost of training has gone up very sharply—from £97 8s 3d per student in .1914 to £l4l "17s 9d in 1931, that a very liberal allowance has been made to the students, and that the accommodation of the training colleges at Auckland and Christchurch will be ample for many years. There is an obvious need to curtail outlay under this head. An important suggestion, prompted in part by a recognition of the need for economy, has been made that the University Colleges should take over the Training Colleges with a pooling of staffs. The suggestion is feasible and in accordance with good precedent in university practice, and in Auckland and Christchurch may achieve desirable economy as well as heightened efficiency; but applied to Wellington and Dunedin it would cross the intention of the commissioners by the retention of the training colleges in both p-laces, in effect although not as separate institutions. This part of the commission's recommendations should be studied anew in the light of the university proposal.

To turn io the recommendations that deal with reduction in the cost of primary education in relation to pupils, it is to be noted that the commission looks fo the well-organised correspondence school of the Education Department, conducted without heavy expense, as an aid in cutting down, if not cutting out, the heavy cost of conveyance of school children. and of maintaining the small schools that have an average attendance of from one to eight and require one teacher. This recommendation does not traverse the policy of creating consolidated schools wherever free conveyance is associated already with economy, but it offers a helpful way, at the present time, of reducing expenditure without inflicting serious hardship. To save £50,000 by this means would be justified. On the question of substituting tuition by correspondence for the very small school it is to be noted that in Victoria, an " economy committee " recently considering expenditure on education recommended the closing of all schools with a roll of ten or less. For yet another drastic proposal. the raising of the minimum age of admission to primary schools from five years to six, there is ample justification, under existing conditions. According to the report of a similar commission set up by the British Government in 1922, evidence shows that children commencing school attendance at six years suffer no appreciable lack of attainment on reaching the school-leaving age.

Tn so extensive a treatment of possible economies in education the commission has explored many avenues that cannot be entered adequately in any brief comment, but its judgment that administration has been unduly expensive is entitled to special attention. Figures support the contention, and it will be readily agreed that a reduction is desirable. In the main method favoured by the commission, however, there is a subject for careful examination : if is the abolition of the education boards, making possible a saving of £50,000. Jt may be admitted that the system of district boards primary, secondary, technical —is complicated, cumbrous and costly, but to remove it by a stroke of the pen is not easy, nor is it necessarily desirable. The commission has obviously been seized of the importance of fostering local interest; hence its opinion that the school committees should lie retained and that school councils, akin to the parents' associations that have multiplied in recent years, should serve the interests of secondary and technical schools as voluntary organisations. There is recognised also, in the recommendations, the danger that political and departmental domination may lie increased by the abolition of the boards: thus the establishment of a central advisory board, removed from political influence, is proposed. This suggestion merits consideration. Centralisation need not be perniciously rigid and deadening, and a representative central body of the sort suggested might serve to co-ordinate effort without hampering it. Nevertheless, it is problematic whether such a method would satisfy requirements. It might be departmental dominance under another name, reducing to a mere shadow the vitally important element of local contact and service. With other recommendations, it is to be examined carefully before a decision is reached.