SCHOOL GRANTS.
NEED FOR SCRUTINY. LESS MONEY NOW AVAILABLE. The effect of the present financial stringency on the comprehensive school building programme that has been launched by the Education Department, was the subject of a statement recently by the Minister of Education (the Ho’n. C. J. Parr). The Minister, in reply to a question regarding a curtailment of the building scheme initiated by him, said: “I am afraid I shall not be able to keep on moving as quickly as I would like in this direction. I have been conferring with the various education authorities, with a view of readjusting the programme for the coming biennial period. Grants for new' school buildings will hayy to be most carefully considered; indeed, already it is only in cases of pressing urgency that the Department is able to undertake the erection of new buildings. We have done excellently during the past year. The expenditure and commitments for new schools and additions to schools during this period have exceeded the figures of any previous year by 3C per cent. I fear, however, that I «hall now have to cut my coat according to the cloth of somewhat stringent times. The Minister of Finance has been very liberal during Yhe past year in Regard to education grants, but curtailment of expenditure is now imperative.” Speaking of what had been accomplished in the country districts, Mr. Parr remarked: “There can be no question that in respect to the backbloqks, where new schools were urgently required, the position has been materially relieved during the year that I have held office. Newly-settled districts have had special attention, and they will continue to have the Government’s particular consideration. In towns and suburban districts, where the overcrowding problem has been so acute, I shall not be able to build so many new schools as 1 would desire. We shall have to make the best of the schools by remodelling and renovating them, and to provide such further accommodation as is jic-ces-sary by renting halls and other buildings. It is of no use to blink at the position: it has to be faced. I must do the best that I can to make the Department’s policy conform to the exigencies of public finance, although I hope a certain ampunt of building will still go on. Fortunately we have placed teachers’ salaries in a much better position, and I hope they will remain in this position. I also nave been able to secure three or four times as many entrants for the teaching profession as we have had in any previous year. This means a reduction in the size of large classes that is such a handicap to the giving of individual treatment to pupils.”
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Taranaki Daily News, 18 March 1921, Page 6
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453SCHOOL GRANTS. Taranaki Daily News, 18 March 1921, Page 6
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