Meeting on Education

Angry though teachers and parents are about proposed cuts in Government spending on education, it appears that they are not yet angry enough to really do anything.

The meeting on education at the Town Hall on Tuesday March 2nd was supported by the FOL, Parent teacher associations, NZEI, NZPPTA, NZUSA, and even the Play Centre Federation.

The first two speakers, NZEI president Hunter and NZPPTA president Murdoch, outlined the obvious position of education as the top priority Government investment which of course is well known. They were both boring and spoke for too long, and when Murdock said we must continue to increase our investment in education if our (his) standard of living is to continue to rise, he wasn't talking about human values. How affluent do we really need to be?

Dave Cuthbert NZUSA, saved the meeting. He introduced a few new ideas, and, an emotional speaker, had the whole audience with him. (His address is reprinted in full elsewhere in this issue.)

The tone had moved from the biggest mutual back-pat seen for some time, to emotional involvement.

When FOL secretary, Knox, spoke of Trade Union confrontation of the Government on the issue, concerned members of the public who had gone along to express their disapproval started to realise they were out of their depth. They began to appreciate just how involved they had become during Cuthbert's speech.

Only one floor speaker had the courage to get up and say that he didn't sympathise with the Wainui dispute or the FOL and although he was all but shouted down the dissent was increasing.

The split came to the fore when along with two other motions, one to increase educational spending at the expense of troops in Vietnam and State Aid to private schools was moved and seconded. Uproar resulted and many raised the point of order that the motion was irrelevant - it was disallowed amidst turmoil The motion that the previous resolution be not put was then passed by the meeting. Draw your own conclusions.