The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times WEDNESDAY, AUG. 26th, 1925. COST OF EDUCATION.

Hokitika Guardian, 26 August 1925, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times WEDNESDAY, AUG. 26th, 1925. COST OF EDUCATION.

Ini; annual report of the .Minister of Education states the total expenditure on education during the financial year ending March 31« t., 192-5, including endowment revenue, amounts to £3,723,(XX), as against £3,350,000 for the previous year, an increase of nearly £373,090. Jn considering the yearly increasing cost of education (the Minister of Education says) it must he borne in mind that nearly two and a half 'millions, or 83 per cent., of me cost of education is devoted to the salaries of teachers, Inspectors, and other officers of the Department, and that, owing to the natural yearly increase of school, population, amounting to nearly four thousand in the primary schools, seven hundred in the secondary schools, and six hundred i the technical high schools, about two hundred must he added to the teaching staffs cat'll year, at a cost of about £50,01.0, and other school expenditure must he correspondingly increased. Unless our lree-education policy is modified and privileges restricted or salaries reduced, this annual increasing cost, with its cumulative effect, must lie met from year to year, it has also to ho considered in connexion with the expenditure for last year unit owing to the very large classes in some of our primary schools, the staffs of the larger schools have had to la? increased during the year under review, for the day has passed when the Government can permit classes of seventy, eighty, or ninety children under one teacher. Part, of the increased cost of education last year was due to this natural increase in numbers, but there were also special circumstances affecting the expenditure. The increase was accounted for by the following:—An increase of nearly £160.000 in the expenditure on the erection of new buildings rendered necessary by the curtailment of this work during the war and subsequently, so that large arrears of building at greatly increased cost has had to be undertaken: a grant of £50,000 to increase the salaries of teachers during the financial year ; an extra expenditure of £22,000 on high school teachers’ sala-

ries to provide teachers for the increased numbers of pupils now taking advantage of free education in the district high and secondary schools; tlio additional cost, estimated at £37,000, of providing teachers in primary schools for the annual increase in the number of pupils, and for tho purpose of reducing the size of the very large classes; a much larger expenditure than usual (£33,000) on rebuilding schools destroyed by fire; the inclusion in the expenditure on education for the first time, of subsidies to the Institute for the Hlind (£15,000) ; the restoration of the grant (£3000) for public libraries; increased grants, amounting to about £OOOO. to the Workers’ Education Association and Universities; increased grants of over £-1000 to School Committees; smaller increases in the other votes. From the above it will he apparent that, though a keen eye he kept on every increase in annual cost, yet it would he extremely difficult, if not impossible, to cut down the Department’s yearly expenditure without attacking and doing hurt to the essential features and main fabric of the whole system.