VALUE OF KINDERGARTEN WORK

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 29, 4 February 1932, Page 10

VALUE OF KINDERGARTEN WORK

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—The announcement that thefGovernmenfc subsidy to kindergartens is to cease this year is a shock to those good citizens who founded and maintained them' for years until their value to the com-1 munity became more widely acknowledged. It is agreed that the youngsters who attend kindergartens are at a most receptive age to absorb the principles of manners and discipline, tidiness and observation, responsibility and helpfulness that are there inlaid never to quite disappear. Primary school teachers seem unanimously o£ opinion that scholars coming to them from years at kindergarten schools are noticeably better prepared for , ordinary schooling than children*who have not had such opportunities. ' ' # ' That retrenchment is necessary in' most branches of public expenditure is increasingly clear to anyone who will study our national incomings and outgoings. We shall have to go without a number of things we have enjoyed if we are to remain solvent. But it seems rational to review the whole position before such 100 per cent, cuts are made, so that a wise sense of proportion may govern the needed retrenchment. For several years N*w Zealanders have shown their approval 01 the kindergarten work done, by' Bub6crib-: ing £5000 annually, which the Government! has subsidised £ for £. The 100 per cent; cut proposed will save £5000 and badlycripple valuable work., One per ( cent, cut on education as a. whole would save more than £30,000. I suggest that we get equal-value from our past expenditure on kindergartens as as we do from any department of education, and that there is no good reason for more than a 50 per cent, cut, until. other form's of education have contribut-1 ed 'an approximate share ■to the general and necessary saving which our .-educed national income demands. Parliament, on! due consideration, will, I fed sure; decline I to be a> party to such a sweeping away i of the good work done by the kindergar-1 tens in admirable training of its future citizens.—l am, etc., ■• ,

SWILE B^MATHESON.