EDUCATION POLICY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22818, 27 August 1937, Page 10

EDUCATION POLICY

The statement communicated to the School Committees' Association by the Minister of Education consists largely of detailed changes, made or to be made, in the actual working of the system. There 'is promise of a larger policy statement to come. Indicated elsewhere, this is summed up in the final paragraph, which says reorganisation and unification are under way, and it is hoped that a plan will be submitted to Parliament during the coming session. Nearly all the preceding items entail increased expenditure, some of it trifling, some more significant. If the cost of the changes already made were totalled, it would probably not prove to be very great. The estimates of expenditure in the last Budget showed that £654,590 more was allotted to education than was actually spent in 1935-36. This is a comparatively modest share of the £2,545,250 by which the appropriations for social services exceeded the 1935-36 expenditure on them. Judicious expenditure on this service might well yield higher ultimate value than could be had from any other. To admit this is not to condone prodigality. On the Minister's statement, various aspects of the education system are at present being; surveyed with a view to shaping the plan of which he speaks. It is to be hoped the financial side is not being overlooked in these investigations. The plan will not be complete unless it is accompanied by a close and comprehensive estimate of costs. Expenditure need not be made the criterion by which all the rest is judged. The best attainable should be the aim in education policy—even though there is a good deal of uncertainty these days about what is the best. The other extreme is equally to be avoided, that of going ahead regardless of cost. The country, which has to foot the bill, is entitled to know what it will be, and equally entitled to a firm assurance that it will be getting value for its money.