EDUCATION OF THE UNFIT.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10477, 12 October 1912, Page 6

EDUCATION OF THE UNFIT.

Per Press Association. Invercargill, October 10. At a meeting of the Hospital and Charitable Aid/Board to-day the secretary reported that by an amendment of the Education Act in 1910 the education of blind, deaf, epileptic and feeble-mindea children was made compulsory on the part of the parents of such children. The Act further provides that if the parents prove their inability to pay the full cost of maintenance of the child at a special school the deficiency not exceeding 8s per week shall be defrayed by the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board. The secretary, submitted that the Board had never been advised of the contemplated amendment, and that the officers of the Education Department were practically looking for suitable cases for these special schools and admitting them at the expense of the different Charitable Aid Boards without any reference to the Boards who were expected to foot the bill. He recommended that immediate steps be taken through co-operation with other Boards and with the assistance of the Legislature, to hare the Act amended so that the education of these children shall be a charge on the consolidated revenue, and not on the local bodies’ rates, on the grounds that: (1) The Government by the passing of this amended Education Act, 1910, making the education of defective children compulsory, has evidently affirmed the principle that these children are an asset to the country; (2) if they are therefore an asset that demands the granting of educational privileges, why should not the whole of their education be charged to the Government in the same way as consolidated revemie provides the cost of the education of the normal child?