LOWER ESTIMATES.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 191, 13 August 1931, Page 5

LOWER ESTIMATES.

School Committees are Concerned.

The all-round reductions in the estimates for education were the subject of a report by Mr S. R. Evison, secretary of the Canterbury School Committees’ Association, at a meeting of that body last evening. To draw the attention of Cabinet Ministers and Members of Parliament to this, a deputation of school committee-men Visited Parliament House in Wellington on August 6, and pointed out to members the necessity of making an adequate grant for education purposes. Mr Evison was a member of this deputation. The conclusions arrived at by the deputation were as follows: (1) That the cost of education had increased because the policy of the centralised administration, as authorised by Parliament, has made the increase inevitable. (2) That a substantial reduction of cost cannot be effected without a reduction in overhead, that is, in administration costs, and teaching staffs. (3) That a reduction in administration costs and .staff involves either the closing down of certain branches, or of diminishing the efficiency of the whole by understaffing and the withholding of necessities.

(4) That the first course—that is, the closing down of certain branches—is inevitable if efficiency is to be maintained in the remaining branches. (5) That the cost of social services (education of blind, deaf and feebleminded children, and the child welfare organisation) should not be charged to the cost of education. “We are told that the national expenditure on education last year totalled £4,500,000 as compared with £1,058,222 in 1929-30,” said Mr Evison. “One million of last year’s expenditure is not accounted for in the estimates, and, as in past years this difference of a million pounds is presumably made up in the expenditure on new buildings, school committees’ subsidies, scholarships and bursaries, university grants and teachers’ superannuation. We are still in the dark as to how it is proposed to deal with these items in the current year, and any further reductions will have a serious effect on the work of the schools.” It was decided to ascertain from the Minister of Education the amount of saving that would result to the Department of Education from consolidation of schools, as against the increased transportation charges.

It was further decided to circularise Canterbury Members of Parliament bringing under their notice these reductions and asking them to speak against further cuts when the estimates were being discussed in the House.