COUNCIL OF EDUCATION

Taranaki Daily News, 12 June 1926, Page 14

COUNCIL OF EDUCATION

MINISTER ON THE COSTS. . WILL SYSTEM STAND STRAIN? By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, June 9. The Council of Education met to-day. Air. R. A. Wright, Minister of Education, said that in spite of the opinions recently expressed, it was impossible to divorce education from economics. The cost of education had risen from 12s in the eighties to £3 a head now. It was no use complaining, but people were beginning to ask whether the system would stand the strain of the growing demands upon it. He pointed out that while the average skilled or unskilled workman had little left after paying rent and bare necessities, the question of earning a living pressed upon children. as soon as they reached the sixth standard. This was' another indication of the close relation of economics with education. Air. J. Caughley, Director of Education, said technical education had not yet found its true objective. The time had come to take stock of the position. Hitherto each director had been allowed to work out a policy of his own, but what was wanted now were technical high school boards and a settled policy. No longer must pupils be made to work to the equipment provided; the time had come to arrange the work most suitable for each pupil. The council resolved to ask the department to revise the conditions under which boarding allowances are granted to scholarship holders. A proposal that the Minister be advised to establish in centres of over 1200 people at least one primary school for girls from Standard 1 to 6, staffed entirely by women, was moved by Air. J. R. Kirk.

UNEMPLOYED TEACHERS. * Wellington, June 10. In an effort to deal with unemployment among school teachers, the Council of Education resolved to recommend that all qualified teachers who, having failed to obtain positions after repeated application are, in the judgment of the senior inspector for the district, unemployed through no fault of their own, shall, where possible, three months after the termination of their training college period, be provided with temporary positions where their services may be utilised most usefully.