FREE KINDERGARTENS

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 28, 3 February 1932, Page 11

FREE KINDERGARTENS

-Withdrawal of subsidy

STATEMENT BY COUNCIL

, The president and council of the Wellington Free Kindergartens have issued the following statement in regard to the withdrawal of capitated funds:— • i The decision of the Minister of Education to withdraw all financial support from, the Free Kindergartens is causing deep \and widespread concern throughout the city. For twenty-six years the Free Kindergarten Association in "Wellington has been steadily extending in its scope. Now" it controls the activities of. schools in Taranaki street, Brooklyn, Berhampore, Newtown, Wellington South, Petone, and Ngaio. Each Kindergarten is diroctod by a certificated teacher, and under the control of ,a highly-qualified principal forms a training school for students. The work has been developed largely as a result of self-sacrificing voluntary effort, by the willing service of local commit-tees,^-mothers' clubs, and the generous interest of the community generally. ESSENTIAL FACTOR IN EDUCATION. ■'■ For many years the Government has recognised Kindergarten as an essential, factor in education in New Zealand, has subsidised the building of schools and the purchase of equipment, and has: given a per capita grant based on the average attendance. " Now the whole Kindergarten movement, not only in Wellington but throughout the Dominion, is imperilled. There is no provision for Kindergarten schdols under the Education Department, and if the Free Kindergartens are deprived of the. Government's support, not only will it be practically impossible to pro-1 vide-" adequate training in New Zealand for Kindergarten teachers, but the work in general will be seriously curtailed. The maximum cost per annum to the State of the Kindergartens in New

Zealand does not, at the present moment, exceed 15500, or £3 12s per child. The cost to the Government of the individual child in the Kindergarten is approximately one-third the cost of the individual.child in tho primary school, thus giving some idea of tho relative cost in comparison to other branches of education. ' Authorities throughout the world regard pre-school training as the most 'important period in the lifo of the child. Tho educational value of the Kindergarten'" is threefold. *Not only arc the children prepared for school, but they aro taught sound physical and mental habits, manual dexterity is encouraged, the team spirit is developed, and a love of work and unselfish service is inculcated. The training of students is the, work of the Free Kindergartens, the State making no provision for such training. Tho parents of the children are themselves part of the educational scheme. Kindergarten aims at co-operation'between the home and the school, and the work of the mothers' clubs testifies to the extent to which the aim is realised. SAVING- TO EDUCATION DEPARTMENT. It is claimed that the Free Kindergartens represent an actual saving to the Education Department. The testimony of headmasters of leading schools in tho city,'is/,tSat Kindergarten-train-ed children are more responsive than others, and that they pass through the schools with greater facility. For the most part Kindergarten children enter the primary schools with. bad mental and physical -.habits corrected and good ones developed. '■ There is a. widespread feeling in Wellington that the. Kindergartens, of which the, city is justly proud, cannot be'allowed to'be wiped" out with one stroke of the pen. The Kindergarten Council is. prepared to share in the general financial retrenchment. It feels, however, that its duty to the coinnvunity makes it imperative, that it should, appeal for a reconsideration of the Minister's decision to withdraw all 'financial" snpp'oftj and steps will be taken to this end.