Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, JANUARY 31, 1922. EDUCATION BOARD AUTOCRACY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2386, 31 January 1922, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, JANUARY 31, 1922. EDUCATION BOARD AUTOCRACY.

THE Park enquiry furnishes further evidence, if such were necessary, of (lit* stupidity and scandalous financial loss to the Slate of triple control in connect ion' with our primary educational system. Apart altogether from the causes which led up to the enquiry, we find the Board in question Inking; up an autocratic altitude in its attempt to ride rough-shod over the Committee. Department and Minister. We are pleased to note that the Minister, is not inclined to tolerate Board autocracy. The Ideal Committee had a taste of such tactics some lime since, and although the grievance was not taken on to the Minister, the publicity given to the incident brought home to committees and householders a wider knowledge of their powers and responsibiiilies, and exposed the uselessness of Board control. Can any ,-nne man who has given educational administration serious consideration .justify the existence of Boards? On the contrary, they can point to innumerable eases where local interest in educational affairs has been checked by petty and stultifying interference. No, it is only a matter of time when Board control, a heritage of I lie old Provincial form of Government, will lie abolished, and the Park enquiry will educate the public and legislators to such necessity. The committees throughout the Dominion, almost without exception, hacked by the Educational Institute, have declared for Board abolition, and the sooner the Act is amended in this connection the better it will be for primary education.