ECONOMY IN EDUCATION

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 203, 20 April 1932, Page 4

ECONOMY IN EDUCATION

The protests made by Rotorua parents at the annual meeting of householders on Monday against two of the suggested education economies, the abolition of the education boards and the raising of the school entrance age to six years, have much to justify them. In support of the latteh proposal it is contended that the centralisation under one authority of the executive work now undertaken by the various education boards would result in a considerable saving to the country. In this connection it is no doubt possible to marshal an imposing array of theoretical evidence. The cold facts of experience, however, point overwhelmingly the other way. Centralisation such as that

suggested, would almost certainly have the enect m practice oi placing effective control of the whole education system in the hands of a few officials, with the almost inevitable result that there would be a costly loss of efficiency due to delays, lack of local knowledge, and that love of red tape and intolerance ,of outside opinion which seem to be the almost inseparable characteristics of the official mind. Under the present system the education administration enjoys the advaritage of decentralised control by representative men with an intimate local knowledge, whose services are given to the State, not professionally or for reward, but voluntarily and as an expression of their -sense of civic responsibility. Such service is, of course, infinitely preferable to any centralised system yet devised and the public generally and parents in; particular, will take a lot of convincing that any material financial saving can be expected from centralisation, which can possibly compensate for its inherent disadvantages. One of the most evil legacies left by the great war is the immensely strengthened bureacratic influence of the public service. In far too many spheres the Government of the country is carried on under acts which. merely lay down broad principles -in the most elastic terms, leaving the working detail to be fiJled in by means of Orders-in-Council and regulations. This system is the chief strength of bureaucracy, coneentrating, as it does, the effective pow:er in the hands of the officials who frame and administer the orders and regulations. It may be an exaggeration to suggest that the departmental chiefs have their eyes on education as the next subject for such control, but it is undeniable that, with centralised control, there is, under existing circumstances a definite danger of some such development. For this reason the protests of the education boards and the parents should be strongly supported by the public. As regards the proposed raising of the school entrance age, the position is not so simple. It is claimed for it that it is the least unsatisfactory method of reducing temporarily the cost of education without unduly interfering with the system. The arguments against its used by speakers at the Rotorua householders' meeting could, as a matter of fact, be equally as well used in its favour. Their point, however, was a two-fold one, first, that any reduction of the grade of the school following a contraction of the roll number would be liable to entail a loss of efficiency and secondly that by requiring parents to keep their children at home a year longer than at present, the interests of the children themselves would be adversely affected. These points were well made and the most thorough investigation of the results of the proposed alteration from every point of view should be made before the final decision is reached.