AXE OF ECONOMY

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 81, 2 October 1931, Page 3

AXE OF ECONOMY

"IRREPARABLE HARM"

Addressing a meeting of parents at Kilbirnie last evening, Mr. F..M. Renner, principal of the Eongotai Boys^ College, made a strong appeal to all concerned to resist any curtailment 01 educational expenditure. Depression would pass and good times come again, ho said, but the good times of youth and its golden rpportunities, once past, would never Teturn. Therefore, if extraordinary measure's could be taken to give a chance to the \uneinployed, surely extraordinary measures could be taken to preserve the futures of the children, who, once deprived of their opportunities, had no' future left except degradation and intellectual death. ' Mr. Renner said his.fear was that it the process of deprivation which had been in operation during the past six months was continued,- irreparable harm would result to the nation—adults and children alike. The teachers were not undertaking'■ tlie^campaign■ of ptotest because they iwero afraid of ■ ■.Retrenchment -or - reduction ,of i salaries. Such a selfish' aspect'had never been considered, '■ and.'. he 'wished to protest strongly against the public' .statement made by the'ehairmanof a local educational body in suggesting that the fear of. retrenchment and loss of jobs was behind thel teachers' agitation. The remark- was a poor return for the labour of a lifetime which teachers had expended on the children of the Dominion. Thetoachers were not af raidj for- themselves, but they were desperately* afraid1 for the children, when they saw the axe of economy about to be laid at the root of the tree of knowledge. ' i : •■■-.. , , '. : NEED TOR WATCHFULNESS. Mr. F. C. Brew, chairman of the Standing Committee of the New, Zealand Federation of Teachers, said that the deputation which had met the Minister of Education on Wednesday had been gratified^ to have the Minister 'a frank assurance that he did not intend to do away with the free-place system in secondary schools. It ' was also cheery to hear the Minister say that those who cried loudest for reduction of costs were those who knew, least about' the matter. There was, however, still sufficient cause for Watchfulness in the fact that the Minister was convinced that a great many children attended secondary schools and left without having derived 4ny benefit. From the remarks made b;* the Minister it seemed; a fair inference that there might exisit •an • intention to limit severely the number of children to be admitted to free post-primary schools next year. It was both <tho right and the duty, of parents to put before the Minister some aspects of the problem which should find a place in the cautious consideration he had promised the whole matter. ':

•■. Mr. Brew referred to the monetarysaving which would be effected by stiffening the requirements' of the proficiency, examination and so reducing the number o£ entrants to secondary schools, and said that the real, cost'to the country was wasted human life and unfilled potentialities, /which would be infinitely greater' than the cash saving. There was the hideous problem of the unemployed adolescent to be considered.

The following resolution was carried unanimously by those present, numbering about 300 people:—"That this meeting of' parents deplores the attempt that has been made in the Press by certain interests to deprive children of their right to free primary and postprimary education, and while admitting that certain economies can bo effected urges that there be no curtailment of the , educational facilities at present available to the children of this Dominion."