EXTRAVAGANT ECONOMY

Southland Times, Issue 19770, 19 February 1923, Page 5

EXTRAVAGANT ECONOMY

BRITAIN AND EDUCATION. APPEAL TO GOVERNMENT. (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association). LONDON, February 17. \ (Received February 18, 5.5 p.m.) The Workers’ Educational Association has issued a letter, the signatories including Lord Haldane, Lord Bentinck, James Yoxall, Dr. Smith, the master of Balliol and Bowerman, M.P., stating that if one lesson was clear from experience it was that education economy was the worst extravagance. “There are one and a half million unemployed whose bitter idleness means inestimable loss in physical, mental and moral power. In many cases it means final ruin. It is an overwhelming national burden, yet we are deliberately adding to it by turning out from the schools six hundred thousand untrained, immature, inexperienced workers yearly. During the war, when youths from all blind-alley occupations served in the trenches, it was commonly agreed that it would be shameful and dangerous for schoollife to finish at the age of fourteen. Yet we have reverted to this system. The recent education continuation provisions , which now have been abandoned, would cost £lO, 000,000 in five years. The Association appeals to the Ministry to check this deplorable reaction.”