SIX MILLIONS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 72, 22 September 1930, Page 11

SIX MILLIONS

EDUCATION BILL

NEW SOUTH WALES BUDGET

As against nearly £6,000,000 that it spends on education, New South Wales receives in revonue a bare £100,000 a year. At Sydney University, out of approximately 2410 students, 1163 pay no fees at all, says' the "Sydney Sun." The staggering disparity between outgo and income is causing the Govuicnt furiously to think, but all the cutting down of Estimates—and the pruning knife has been working in the Education Department with deadly effect— cannot materially rodnce the gap. The income remains at £108j880, which is the latest available figure, or thereabouts. Of the latter amount, only a. small percentage is returned to the Department by way of fees, so that' free education in New South Wales is free in' the word's most literal sense. There is no other possible source of revenue, and unless a change is made,, the State's direct financial return for the expenditure of the best part of £6,000,000 will continue to be about £100,000. MONEY GRANTS. Through every stage of education whore the State is concerned, tho .cost i of learning—to the learner —is nil, while at the University, of the 1200 students who pay no fees, a number, of these, exhibition holders, receive money grants. Primary education in New South Wales is free and compulsory to the age of 14. In that the State follows the rule of most Western countries,'although in some notable cases; as in the United States, the age is carried to 10. Secondary education ia also free, and here again the precedent of many of the older countries is followed. But while, for example, primary education is free in Great Britain, limitations arc being imposed- on free secondary and academic education. The lead has been given by the London County Council, which is now reserving 25 per cent, of free places in its secondary schools. This, it is claimed, gives excellent. opportunity to the poorer children of brilliant parts, while securing' fees from those in a position to pay them. HIGHEST IN AUSTRALIA. This figuro of 25 per /cent., it is understood, has impressed itself upon the authorities in New South Wales, harassed by trying to balance Budgets in which- ever-mounting costs are opposed to decreasing funds. The cost of education in New South Wales is 1 easily the highest in Australia. On attendance figures,. £16 15s 6d a head is paid to educate 344,171 enrolled pupils. Salaries form the biggest item, and, in tho main, also represent the difference in the education expenditure of New South Wales and other States. The cost per head of population on the latest available figures is £1 15s Bd. In addition to providing free education in the State schools proper, the Government pays out substantial sums each year in scholarships and grants to different institutions. About £180,-' 000 is distributed, for instance, as subsidies to a long list of public and semipublic bodies, with the University receiving the' great bulk of the grant. The Department pays about £30,000 a year to the University, to compensate for the free training of its teachers,! but there is another £46,000 on top of that in other endowments. Pupils at the Teachers' Training College, inci- 1 dentally, receive, in addition to free education and text-books, £80 a year if they come from the country, and £50 ,if they live in the city. At Sydney University roughly 50 per. cent, of the students do riot pay fees; at Melbourne University, the number is about 17 per cent. The average cost at Sydney is £69 a year per student. .... HIGH SCHOOL WASTE. •.'"■':.- . The greatest waste in the present educational system is in the HighSchools, where considerable sums are spent in educating children who attend for one or two years and then drop out without completing any course. Several years ago a survey of tho position revealed that, out of 20,000 pupils in the High Schools, fewer than 2000 were doing the leaving certificate course. In the latest report of the Education Department it is shown that, of 2480 boys who left school for occupations, 038 probably became clerks, 312 shop assistants, and 436 went into unskilled occupations. Only 476 out of a total of 2956 continued their education at other institutions. In the case of girls at High School, 914 out of 1328 left school to remain at. home.