MINISTER IN DEFENCE

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1053, 18 August 1930, Page 8

MINISTER IN DEFENCE

REPLY TO CRITICISM Of EDUCATION PLAN MISREPRESENTATION ALLEGED From Ovr Resident Reporter WELLINGTON, Today. The following letter has been for- . warded by the Minister of Education j the Hon. H. Atmore, to school committees throughout the Auckland district: — I have to acknowledge receipt of your letter of August 11, conveying - resolution passed by your committee with reference to the report of the Recess Education Committee. In reply I have to say that your communication appears to be the result of a circular letter, which the Auckland Education Board has apparently sent j to every school committee in its disj trict, and in which, I regret to say, the board has grossly misrepresented the facts. With regard to the appointment of teachers, the board states that “all appointments will be made by a National Appointments Committee at Wellington.” While it is true that the proposal of the committee is that appointments should be entrusted to a National Appointments Committee, the board has not taken the trouble to inform school committees that it will be a body comprising representatives of the teachers and the department, with an independent chairman. TEACHING RESOURCES Further, the board does not say that j it will mob >lise and direct to the best j national advantage the nation’s teaching resources, with disinterested regard to the legitimate needs of all schools—country as well as city—on an efficiency basis, and that where deemed desirable it will consult local commitj tees. It is worthy of note that the pro- ; posal has the strong support of th* New Zealand Educational Institute, which body represents more than 6,000 teachers in the Dominion. The board's statement “that the erection. maintenance and repair of school buildings and teachers’ residences is to be undertaken by the Public Works Department, instead of through Education Boards as at present,” is absolutely contrary to fact. The truth is that in its endeavour to bolster up a weak case the board has taken the evidence ; c*f one of the witnesses, which was 1 embodied in the report, and made it ' appear as a recommendation of the ! committee. There is nothing derogatory to the * education boards in the committees ; proposal in connection with the payment of teachers. Unfortunately the Auckland board has not deemed it ; necessary to point out that the pay- ; raents have to be made according lo fixed scales, and that the existing practice involves the duplication of clerical staffs, which is not warranted and cannot be justified. The Government has to pay the salaries, and there is no reason why' payTuent should not l>e made direct to the teachers. CAPITATION ALLOWANCES The foregoing remarks are. to a certain extent, applicable to the distribution of capitation allowances and subsidies. Here, too, there is duplication and not infrequently friction and delay, and a continuation of the present practice cannot be defended. Where payments have to be made according to fixed scales, prescribed by statute or regulation, and operating uniformly throughout the Dominion, the committee is of the opinion that such payments should be made direct from the department to the recipients and should not pass through the board’s accounts at all.

With reference to the alleged “centralisation of educational administration in Wellington,” I desire to say that the board’s remarks are not justified and have no foundation. As a matter of fact, the committee has stated in the report that it is strongly opposed to the suggestion, made during my predecessor's term of office, that the existing education boards should be abolished in favour of a completey centralised department. A careful study' of the proposals will show that they’ provide for de-centrali-sation to a great degree, and I have no hesitation in stating that when the recommendations of the committee are thoroughly understood by school committeemen and women and the parents generally, they will not be content to allow the actions of those who feel they have a vested interest in positions which they' have held for many years to stand in the way of progress in the educational development of their children. It cannot be denied that there is a great waste in expenditure upon administration in New Zealand, compared with other countries, and surely it is not unreasonable to ask that the money' voted by’ Parliament for tn® education of the girls and boys shad be expended for that purpose and not wasted in the expensive overlapping which is so much in evidence today -