The Cost of Education.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 190, 12 August 1931, Page 8

The Cost of Education.

To the Editor. Dear Sir,—A clipping containing your leading article of August 5 has just come to hand. In it you give an array of which, from a casual reading, might create an impression that the heading of the article, 44 Too Heavy a Burden,” is justified. I hope to show that this is not so. Nothing can be so deceptive as figures unless they are correctly interpreted. Taking 1914 a? the standard year on which all our presentrlay calculations are based, the figures would purport to show an increase of expenditurc equal to 31s lOd per head, equal to 137 per cent. Such a showing is entirely misleading, because the casual reader would assume that the pound of 1930 is of the same value as the pound of 1914. The actual fact i that the pound to day is worthy only about five-eighths of the original value; and thi: brings the real cost down from 54s lid a head to 34s 4d on the 1911 standard. The increased cost thus appears to be not, as the figures would show. 31s lOd a head but 11s 3d, and this increase spread over a period of sixteen years. Not much room for complaint there, surely. Still less room for complaint when some of the advances and improvements that have been made during the period are taken into account. For the information of jour readers please afford me space to enumerate some of them : Smaller Classes.—Classes of seventy and eighty, which were common in 1914, have now disappeared. Better Teachers.—ln 1914, and up to about 1922 or 1923, nearly a third of the teachers were uncertificated. Now it is the proud boast of New Zealand that it has practicallv no unqualified teachers in its schools. How many countries can make that claim? „ , . More Healthful Buildings—Many of the old schools were dangerous to health. Most of these, not all, have been rebuilt or remodelled.

Organising Teachers.—For the assistance of inexperienced and unqualified teachers in the countrv, organising teachers were employed. These have served their purpose and are now dispensed with. Larger playing areas. Physical instruction. School medical service. School dental service. Child welfare.

Education has to do with bodies as well as minds, and all these services are invaluable adjuncts to the young life of the Dominion. • These things show that the phrase used in the article. 44 this tremendous growth of expenditure.” is something rather more than an exaggeration. It is true there has been a great expansion of post-primary education. because the mind of the people is awaking to the overmastering importance of education. They have developed an education sense, and there is an insatialile demand for higher instruction—witness the thousands of voting people in schools and classes of all kinds every night of the week, and the numbers crowding the doors df the University Colleges. It is not a true charge to make that our young people are seeking clean-collar occupations. They will take clean-collar positions if they are offering—and why not. since the pay is better there; but they will take any position that is offering they are not afraid of work or of soiling their hands—try them and see.—l am. etc.. 11. A. PARKINSON, Secretary N.Z.E.I. Wellington, August 11. This letter is referred to editorially.