EDUCATION SAVINGS

Waipa Post, Volume 45, Issue 3252, 8 November 1932, Page 2

EDUCATION SAVINGS

MINISTER'S STATEMENT CHALLENGED

COMMENTS BY N.Z. EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTE

In a speech in the Legislative Council on Wednesday, sth instant the Minister for Education, the Hon. R. Masters, is reported to have said: — "At the end of the present year New Zealad would be spending on eduction £1,200,000 less than was spent last year and the same results would have been achieved."

While not disputig that there is need for economy and that savings must be made, the executive of the New Zealand Educational Institute is of the opinion that it is quite impossible under present conditions that the same results can be achieved. It may be that this year the number of proficiency certificates will be awarded and the same number of free places gained; but there is much more in education than the passing of examinations. The thirty or forty - thousand parents who formerly sent their children to school at the age of five and whose five-year-old children are now debarred from school will not agree that their exclusion is all to the good. The Education Department's own statistics show that starting school at a late age is one of the main causes of retardation. Apart from the effect on the children themselves the disorganisation resulting from the exclusion of the five-year-olds on a system based sjince its inception on a commencing age of five must be considered. The loss of upwards of 20,000 pupils will mean the dismissal of some 500 teachers and the re-arrangement of the classes prejudicial to the teachers will lose their present children. In many schools the teachers will lose their present positions on account of a fall in grade and will be transferred to other positions. Some of these, anticipating a fall in grade will seek more stable positions. Indeed they are already doing this. These constant changes in staff must inevitably result in a lowered standard of efficiency in the schools jand undoubtedly many children will suffer injury to their prospects. A further consideration is the withdrawal of many assistants' formerly granted where passes were unduly large. Whereas it was formerly the proud boast of the Education department that ther e was not a single class of over 60 pupils there must now be hundreds, jeal education is impossible under these conditions. The National Expenditure Commission, m recommending the exclusion «J five -year-olds said:— A reduction in the number of the pupils attending the primary schools would be one effective mean s of reducing the size of classes and also the cost of education "

. It is clear that the commission had in mind not reducing the teaching staff but reducing the size of classes. This, if it had been cajntfed out, wbuld

have p. substantial! educational compensation, but it was not. Instead, the schools are to be deprived of teachers. The fact that no relieving teacher is provided in cases of absence owing - to sickness, except for prolonged absence, is another factor affecting the continuity and affectiveness of the teaching. Some other results' of the drastic cut in education ex penditure may be summarized as follows:

No material for training in handwork is being supplied and a very valuable side of education is thus being impaired.

Suubsidies on funds raised locally have been cut off so that certain essentials such as reading material for the pupils, can no longer be provided except in favoured localities.

Medical and dental inspection have been citi'tailed at a time when people are les s able than ever to afford private advice and treatment.

Unsuitable text-bo(Oiks which hav e long outlived any usefulness they may have had are being continued in use.

Transport of children in country districts ha s bseen restricted, another disadvantage to the country child. Impetus has been given to the growth of private schools. The unity of national life has thereby been impaired and the tendency towards class divisions has been accentuated. ,

Inspection has been withdrawn O schools. In every one of these aspects of the matter the results that can be achieved under the altered conditions must of necessity be inferior to the real results that, have bene achieved hitherto. And the harm that will be done will be permanent while the depression that is the cause of it, or at least the excuse for it, is already, we are told on high authority passing. The pessimism and materialism exhibited in the two reports of the National Expenditure Commission are not sufficient warrant for the assaults made on tl«e prospects of 'ie youh cf this Dominion. Thrse reports give no indication of any appreciation that there is such a thing a s a social organism that needs nourishing- or a social life that needs culture, they I are in effect an implicit repudiation of the nation's responsibility under pressure of a temporary stringency. And, be it note it is the children who are to bear the burden. Furthermore there is every reason to believe that this harsh treatment of the children is unnecessary, that even before it has reached its full effect all semblance of need for it will have passed away. Let it said once more—it cannot be said too often—that the children are the most valuable and the most important of all the assets of the nation, and to stint their physical, mental and moral nurture is not economy but folly. J