COST OF HIGH SCHOOLS

Manawatu Standard, Volume X, Issue 1492, 28 October 1885, Page 2

COST OF HIGH SCHOOLS

The Otago Daily Times writes : — The authorised return of the public expenditure on Secondary Schoals for the year 1884 is now before us, and from it we take the following facts and figures. The total expenditure by the colony on boys' and girls' higk schools, grammar schools, and colleges amounts to £71,517. Possibly some small deduction may be made from this sum as income from "other sources" and is included m this total, other, that is, than endowments and grants from the Treasury. The number of stud«nts of botii sexes attending these schools is, on the average, 2,408, giving us tlw cost of education per head as £29 14sj for each soholar. The amount of ieeG paid by scholars during the year is £26,910, or £11 3s 6d per head. We arrive, therefore, at the conclusion that £27,000 is paid by parents directly, and a little over £44,000 by the state m one way or another. During the s^ame period of 1884, m th« public scnools of the colony there were educated 97,238 pupils at a total cost of £365,002 19s 6d, or an averago cost of just over £'& 15s per heud. Our readers analysing the above figures will note* that the cost to the public funds of pach high school pupil is £18 10s 6d, and the cost to the public of each public school pupil is £3 15s. In other words the removal of a small boy from — say the normal school to the high school by some dissatisfied parent means an additional outlay by the State of i'l4 158 5d per annum.