EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 November 1921, Page 6

EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS.

PAST YEAR’S WORK REVIEWED. PROVISION FOR THE FEEBLEMINDED. The expenditure during the last financial year out of the Consolidated Fund on education was £2,734,159 (states the Finance Minister). To this has to be added expenditure on school buildings, £244,722, out of the Public Works Fund, and £214,571 out of the education purposes loan, making a total from Government sources of £3,193,452, or, if the expenditure from income from reserves held by the university colleges and the secondary schools, amounting fto approximately £75.000, is included, a total of nearly £3,300,000. This expenditure exceeds that for the previous financial year by about £678,000*. of which«£3oo,000 represents increases in teachers’ sal-

aries, about £264,000 increased payments for new buildings, and £]3.so(' . i creased grants to the universities. The total of £3,300,000 is the highest expenditure yet incurred in any year upon education.

The increases provided last year in the salaries of all teachers in public, secondary and technical schools, and the more liberal provision made for the training of young teachers with the view of attracting a greater number of entrants to the teaching profession, have already had an appreciable effect upon the supply of teachers, and. though in some districts it is still difficult to obtain suitable applicants, the numbers now offering are larger. There are 917 students in the training colleges, as against 500 three years ago. As these trainees complete their course, boards will be able to provide more efficient teachers, and the supply should soon-become sufficient to remedy the difficulties experienced in the staffing of the larger schools. Among other important changes introduced’ recently is the provision for exchange of teachers with other countries. In order to give our teachers better opportunities of becoming familiar with other education systems, arrangements have been made for giving a number of teachers experience in other parts of the. Empire, and already several are engaged temporarily in the schools of Canada and Great Britain, while teachers from abroad are similarly employed in New Zealand.

During last financial year the expenditure on new school buildings amounted to nearly £500.000, and was in excess of that ’of the previous year, and the commitments at the end of the year were also vary large. Though in this way much has been done to provide school accommodation, it is recognised that much still remains to be done.

The work of the Department in connection with children committed to the. care of the State, and with the. feebleminded, the deaf, and the blind, was further developed during the year by the extension of the probation and boarding out systems of dealing with the firstnamed class, by placing the feeble-mind-ed boys in an'institution separate from the older boys of the same type, and by the. establishment in the large centres of special classes for the instruction of children who arc partially deaf or whose speech is defective. For some time the Department has had under consideration the amendment of the Acts regarding child welfare, with the view of making better provisions for dealing with children requiring aid and protection, and it is proposed to submit legislation on the matter this session. Reforms of curricula and improvements in the instruction will be of little value unless first of all the physical well-being of the children is secured. S ops ha ve accordingly' been taken to improve and,extend the medical and dental services. which luring the year were transferred to the control of the Health Department. The numbers of school medical inspectors and nurses have been increased, and arrangements, are being made with the hospital boards for free* treatment of children in necessitous cases—treatment that is being gradually more apd more availed of. School dental clinics are already in operation, and a number of dental nurses are being specially trained in the treatment of children's teeth, and as these nurses complete their training the -schopl dental svsteni will be extended to other districts. It is hoped to develop gradually the. school medical and dental work until it reaches all the schools, and the health of every child will be specially cared lor ’ » ■