EDUCATION SYSTEM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16978, 14 April 1917, Page 8

EDUCATION SYSTEM

POWERS OF BOARDS AND SCHOOL COMMITTEES. INCIDENTAL ALLOWANCES. A conference of members of tho Canterbury Board and representatives of School Committees was held recently in Christchurch to discuss tho matter of incidental allowances to school committees. A number of members of Parliament were also present. Tho Chairman of tho Education Board (Mr C. 11. Opie) referred to attacks being made on tho education system, which had been in vogue now for 40 years, and said it behoved them all to resist theso attacks. With one of theso .attacks the conference did not propose to deal —the accusation that the present system was a godless one—but the second attack was of a more insidious nature. One of the privileges most valued by school committees, the election of teachers, had been almost entirely swept away from them and the powers of the boards, too, were being taken away. Ho said that it was proposed that in future the school committees were not to bo given the neoessary funds to carry on their work. Ho quoted figures to show the big increase in tho number of school i-hilclren since 1878. tho largo increase in salaries, and the exceedingly small increase in incidentals. ' Summing it all up, ho said, 18 years ago the board granted 13s per head to school committees and now it could give only 6s 6d per head. Mr W._ A. Banks, a member of tho board, moved the following' resolution: " That iri view of tho undoubted increase that has taken place in tho last few years in tho cost of labour, fuel, and material, this conference strongly urges that the grant to school committees for incidental expenses should bo increased and should not bo less than shall amount for all the committees trvken together to 8s per head on the averSgo attendance, leaving the 5s for capitation grant to Education Boards for administration as at present." The motion was seconded by Mr E. H. Andrews, a northern member of the board, who said it was an undoubted fact that the comrnittbes could not carry on their work properly with the amount they were now receiving. Ho was convinced that all that was needed was to place the matter plainly before Parliament. Mr Opie stated that the board. had been assured of the support of practically every board in New Zealand The Chairman of the Elmwood School Committee, Mr Jones, stated that were the 'ncidenfal allowances not increased there would be many schools that would not be ablo to carry on. He received permission to have the following motion put in place of the one moved by Mr Banks:—"That the Government has recognised the increased cost of living in all departments of administration except in the provision for local administration of its primary schools, such provision remaining fhe same as in tho prewar period, for which period it was really insufficient, and is now utterly inadequate, "his conference, having full knowledge of the matter, deal-res it impossible on the ST3m . n . ow . ffranted, to defray the necessary administrative expenses of the boards and with tho balance to maintain the public schools in a state of ordinary cleanliness, comfort, and and therefore de mands, in tho vital interests of the children attending them, that the Government grant for the above purposes be increased forthwith to at least 13s per capita on the attendance." The motion, was carried unanimously.

Two other motions were subsequently caTried. The first Tead : " Tliat this conference entirely repudiates the principle of any funds being raised locally for the ordinary necessary maintenance expenses or equipment of publ'c whether sums so raised -be by the Government' or not." The second related to tho convening of a dominion conference during the next sessioi of Parliament, all Education Boards and School Committee Associations to be represented.

A full report of th» proceedings has been forwarded to the secretary of the School Commrttees' Association of Otago. whose conference will be held shortly, and the question of sending delegates to the Dominion Conference will be considered.