E.—l

4

COST OF EDUCATION. (See also Tables A-F on pages 52-54, and the Appendix.) The total payments made by the Education Department for the year 1920-21 amounted to £3,224,058, showing an increase of £680,057 over the figure for the previous year, and. being double the expenditure of five years ago. If to the expenditure by the Department is added the income derived by secondary schools and University colleges from reserves, the total expenditure amounts to £3,307,000, or £2 13s. 2d. per head of the population, as compared with £2 3s. 4d. in 1919-20. Included in the increase of £680,000 is an increase of £264,000 in the expenditure on new buildings and sites for primary schools, technical schools, and University colleges, which may be regarded as capital expenditure, the increase in the cost of maintenance to the Department being £416,000. Of the last-named sum £318,000 represented the increased cost of primary-school teachers' and trainingcollege students' salaries and allowances. Of the total cost to the Department of maintenance, amounting to £2,766,000, 78 per cent, was on. account of primary education, 9 per cent, secondary education, 3 per cent, technical education (excluding cost, of technical high, schools and of manual instruction in primary and secondary schools), 3 per cent. University education, 5 per cent, special schools and State care of dependent and delinquent children, and 2 per cent, teachers' superannuation and miscellaneous charges. The total expenditure of £2,469,000 on primary education works out at £l 19s. Bd. per head of the population and at £12 7s. sd. per pupil on the roll; excluding the expenditure on new buildings, the cost per head of the roll was £10 17s. 9d. The public expenditure on primary education in England and Wales in the year 1918-19 was at the rate of 19s. lid. per head of the population, the corresponding figure for London being £l 10s. lOd. The expenditure per pupil in 1920-21 was, for England and Wales county areas (excluding London), £9 19s. 9d. ; urban areas (including London), £12 Is. 6d. The principal items included in the expenditure in New Zealand on elementary education were- Teachers' and students' salaries and allowances, £1,720,219; Education Boards' administrative allowance and School Committees' incidental expenses, £.1.27,000 ; maintenance of school buildings, £98,000 ; new school buildings, £279,000. The expenditure on secondary education, which includes the whole expenditure on high schools and on the maintenance of technical high schools and secondary departments of district high schools, amounted to £365,000, of which sum £53,000 was met by income from reserves belonging to High School Boards. The total costis £44,000 more than the amount for the previous year, but it shows a very slight increase in the amount per head of the roll number, which was in 1920-21 £17 10s. 3d., excluding expenditure out of reserves revenue and on new buildings, and £23 17s. Id. including these items. The cost of technical education—£l3o,ooo —includes the large sum of £67,000 expended upon new sites and buildings. Several large schools and hostels were erected or were in course of erection, accounting for the unusually high capital expenditure on this account. Of the expenditure of £139,000 on University education, £30,000 was met by income from the reserves belonging to the various colleges. The Department's expenditure of £109,000 included £72,000 for general maintenance and £37,000 for new buildings and sites. Included in the total cost of education is £25,000 expended on special schools for deaf and feeble-minded children, and £111,000 on industrial schools, the probation and boarding-out system, and infant-life protection. The last-named amount shows an increase of £24,000 over the corresponding amount expended in the previous year, due to the expansion that has taken place in this branch of the work. In addition to the above expenditure controlled by the Education Department £4,427 was expended by the Mines Department on Schools of Mines, and £1,650 by the Department of Public Health on dental and medical bursaries tenable at the University of Otago. •