THE COST OF EDUCATION
(The “Dominion.’’) Education is a highly popular social service and the question of reducing the present expenditure upon it may therefore prove an embarrassing one for politicians. According to the Prune .Minister the current cost is about L'1,500,000 a year, “100 heavy a buidon on taxation under present economic conditions. ’’ Investigation is now to he made of the scope lor economy in this and other State services, hut the committees to he set tip for this purpose will not begin their work until after the impending session is over.
The difficulty of reaching conclusions on the subject of expenditure on education is that the return for it is not easily measured. Broadly speaktbe State spends money in this or that branch of education in the belief, supported by ncedemic opinion, that the results will benefit the individual, and 'through that individual, society in general. From this point it proceeds to the proposition that the greater tin. number of individuals.su benefited, the higher the standard c'f citizenship. It is upon this reasoning that the Government has conferred upon this country a free primary school system, a secondary school system which in respect of fees was in 1930 97 per cent, free, and a university system with an extensive scale of gratuities.
This result has involved a rising scale of expenditure. In the five-year period, 1925-26 to 1929-30, the vote from the public funds has increased from £3.914,434 to £4,058,222, and to-day is not far short of £4,500,000. Within ten years the cost per head of mean population has risen 'from 02 11s 6d to £2 14s lid. Even hi our more abluent days this expenditure evoked considerable criticism, intelligent and otherwise. Then the question was whether the country was receiving an adequate return. To-day the immediate question is whether the country can afford this outlay, but the previous question still awaits a satisfactorv answer.
It lias been said that no country can a fiord not to spend money on education. That is, broadly speaking, a sound statement, but it does not necessarily mean that expenditure should lie extravagant. On account of their somewhat intangible nature, th r tendency in recent years lias been to take the results of education expenditure for granted, instead of making certain that they have been achieved, it hn?> been assumed, for example, that the greater the number of individuals who a!',, given the 'benefits of free secondary and primary education the greater will he the proportion of efficient citizens. This does not necessarily follow. Bread east upon the waters does not always return, Free secondary education in 1912 cost the Government £lO 15s sd' per pupil. To-day the cost is about £23. Free uni verity education costs on an average £l3 per student In 1912 there were 4450 free-plaee pupils in the secondary schools, irrespective of scholarship-holders. In 1929 there were 27,859. ’ in 1911 there were 031 university bursars; in 1929 there 1101 It will thus b eseon that while the public has shown an increasing appreciation of free secondary and higher education, the Government has had to shoulder a proportionately increasing burden. Here arises an important point. With the increase, in the numbers of students ther<> has been an accentuation of the evil of large classes, and a consequent diminution of efficiency. Quality has, unquestionably, been sacrificed for quantity. it. lias now become a practical question whether these benefits have not been 'too freely distributed, whether the mesh should not. he more finely drawn, the qualifying tests made more severe, the numbers substantially reduced, and the education of the fittest he made more efficient. Is it really worth the State’s while to spend £23 a year on a free-place pupil who has not the capacity to make full use of the privilege? That :s only one aspect of the expense account. but it is a very important one The question of costly over-lapping in administration is another. Health services—free, of course —such as dental clinics and medical inspection, comprise yet another. Ihe moral of it all is that the system is due for a thorough overhaul to discover whether idealism has not been exalted at tiie expense of efficiency and national economy.
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Hokitika Guardian, 13 March 1931, Page 5
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701THE COST OF EDUCATION Hokitika Guardian, 13 March 1931, Page 5
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