EXTRAVAGANT SCHOOLS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 126, 18 August 1927, Page 14

EXTRAVAGANT SCHOOLS

WASTEFUL MONUMENTS PRIMARY SYSTEM STARVED Handsome high schools do not appeal to the Auckland Education Board, members of which consider them a “tremendous waste of money.*’ Airing its grievances on curtailment of power yesterday, the board spared a little time for a condemnation of the extravagance of high school boards. “There is a tremendous amount of money wasted on the new high schools,” said Mr. E. C. Banks. -Take Napier and* Takapuna, for examples; they are monuments, not schools! If the high school boards were under the Education Board the expenditure would be much less.” He declared that the “incidental” cost per primary school pupil was 7s or Ss, whereas a minimum of £2 10s was allowed for every secondary school pupil. The high school boards had direct connection with the department and they got what they wanted. Primary schools were starved. Mr. J. Patterson said that the incidental grant for the Pukekohe primary school was about £l3O for 400 scholars and that of the secondary school was £1,200 for 200. Later the question of holidays, cropped up. "Why do secondary schools get more holidays than the primary schools 7” asked the chairman, Mr. A. Burns. “Surely bigger boys and girls could stand more work than the primary children.” Mr. E. C. Banks: Of course, but the teachers need more holidays.