SCHOOL ENTRY AGE

Otago Witness, Issue 4085, 28 June 1932, Page 33

SCHOOL ENTRY AGE

EFFECT OF INCREASE WELLINGTON, June 20. Information concerning the effects of raising the permissive school entry age from five to six is being collected at present by the education boards at the request of the Education Department. From the investigations of the boards, it is expected that the department will be in a position at the beginning of next school year to gauge fairly accurately the decline in school attendances and to what extent staffing and other economies can be made as a result. It is estimated by the Minister of Education (Mr R. Masters) that the raising of the school age to six will result in an annual saving of about £120.000. The National Expenditure Commission estimated that the saving would be only £ll,OOO. but the commission merely took into account the capitation to education boards (£2000) and the incidental grants to school committees (£9000). Much more will, of course, be involved than these two items of expenditure. One of the largest savings will be in respect to teachers’ salaries, for it is anticipated that some of the larger schools will lose two, and some even three, teachers next year with the reduced roll. The present investigation is being carried out on the basis of last year’s enrolments, and it is likely that a reduction of the roll by about 40 pupils will mean that the staffing may be reduced by one teacher. As some of the larger schools admit up to 120 children each year under six years of age, it can be seen that the effect on the school staffs will be considerable. In 1930 there were 2593 primary schools in New Zealand, the staffs totalling 6433 teachers. Although it can be expected that the total enrolment at the primary schools will in time reach its present proportions in spite of the raising of the school age, the attendances next year will be substantially reduced. Tn the past the total attendance has been kept more or less stationary, although allowance must be made for normal increases due to the growth of population. In 1930, for instance, the number of children who left the primary schools was about 21.000. In that year the schools accommodated 19,716 children whose age was five and under six. their number constituting 9.4 per cent, of the total primary schools’ enrolment of 209,588 children. The investigations being made by the various boards are not yet complete, but it has been shown in one district that, roughly, one child in every three under the age of six admitted during last year was not sent to school until _ the third term. These children are obviously sent before the close of the year in order to give them a taste of schooling, and they do not start in earnest until after the long Christmas vacation.