EDUCATION DISTRICT FOR PALMERSTON NORTH

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 42, 19 February 1937, Page 8

EDUCATION DISTRICT FOR PALMERSTON NORTH

Wanganui Board Not in Agreement MERELY A MATTER OF SENTIMENT. The Wanganui Education Board is by no means in agreement with the recommendations in what is known as the Atmore report, regarding the subdivision of the present large education districts including that of Wanganui. One of the proposals was that a new board should be established with headquarters at Palmerston North and in the opinion of a special committee of the Wanganui Board which consideredthe matter and presented its report to yesterday's meeting, sentiment would appear to be the only reason for such a move as far as Palmerston North is concerned, whereas economy should be the deciding factor. The report to the Education Board is as follows: —"The reasons behind the Atmore recommendations would appear to be: (a) That there is a very real danger in having education districts too large; (b) that a reduction in administrative costs would be brought about; (c) that there would be a board in each centre where there is a fully-establish-ed senior high school.

"It is felt that the committee, in its anxiety to depart from the principle ot large boards like Auckland and Canterbury, has gone to the other extreme in recommending that many other districts be subdivided. It is obvious that the smaller the district, the more effective the local control, but there must come a point where the question of cost must offset this advantage, otherwise why hot have 50 or 100 boards. The tables of administrative costs of boards published annually in the E.2 reports of the Department, show that the smaller the board the greater the cost per unit ot average attendance. Wanganui is the median sized board in the Dominion, and the administrative cost is roughly the median cost of the Dominion, it is regarded as an ideal size for administration, not only by the board itself, but by outside authorities. The board is able to keep in close contact with its schools.and teachers, and the testimony of school committeemen and numerous teachers, who leave the service is proof of the board’s satisfactory services. "If Palmerston North is to be under a separate board, Wanganui will necessarily lose a large qrea of closely populated and well roaded country district, and be left with the sparsely populated Main Trunk area which is much more difficult to administer. The result would be that Wangiviui district would be very little larger than the now small Nelson district, and administrative costs must necessarily increase. There would certainly be a saving in administrative costs by abolishing the two post-primary boards in Wanganui and on s in Palmerston North, by tho setting up of an Education Board staff in Palmerston North with, say, 100 schools to administer, and the continuance of a staff iu Wanganui for a similar number of schools would probably cost more than the combined cost of the primary and post-primary boards.

"Palmerston North is situated less than 50 miles from Wanganui by a firstclass road and cannot be regarded as too far distant for effective administration. In fact, the ideal condition of the primary schools in that city is definite proof of that statement. The postprimary schools would have their fechool Councils who would attend to the internal details of the running ot their schools just in the same way as do the present school committees, and the local interests would be represented on tho Wanganui Board. Sentiment would appear to be the only reason why a board should be established in Palmerston North but efficiency and economy should be the deciding factors. The board’s staff already do the administrative work for the Wanganui Girls' College Board and the addition of the other post-primary schools should call for only a very small increase in staff, and certainly not in the group of higher paid officials.”