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Education

Address of President N.Z.U.S.A. to Public Meeting in Wellington Town Hall on Tuesday 2 March called to express concern at proposed cuts in growth of education spending.

NZUSA released the information concerning the proposals to reduce the rate of Government spending on education because we believed that spending on education directly concerns every New Zealander and so New Zealanders should have the right to comment on the cuts in education spending before they are made. And I have been pleased to read in the course of the week that the nation newspapers also believe education spending cannot be reduced. I or be it the Sunday Times or the Christchurch Press the editorials are saying Govt. must restrain growth but education must not be touched. Why! Because it is ultimately by the quality and ability of our people gained through education that this country will develop And for this country it is not a question whether we can afford libraries in primary schools, or ancillary staff to assist our teachers, but the long term economic disasters that will befall us through the lack of trained and educated people, if we do not invest in education.

To hold Government increase in expenditure in education is to cut the throat of our economy, but more particularly since people are more important than money, it is to stem the growth and development of our children.

The Prime Minister has maintained that expenditure will not be cut back, but be held at a 4% increase. This is a confidence trick - it is only semantics. Last year the increase in education expenditure over that in 1969 was in the vicinity of 25% or say 18% in real terms. It was a big increase - much needed to make up for a year's previous neglect in this area hut this increase was only the beginning, the tip of the iceberg And one jump forward, substantial though it may be is not indicative of Government re-evaluation of education expenditure. When Government then turns around this year and states that it is holding back the expenditure to a 4% increase in real terms, last years advance appears as political bribery. But we will not be bribed A limit of a 4% increase in real terms is wiling out on all the Government's election promises Last year was not enough - and this is not taking into account the increase in the number of children and students whose education must be paid for.

Too long has the government delayed its efforts to prevent the serious crisis that has arisen in New New Zealand's education system, and too many governments have delayed necessary expenditure in education. It cannot happen again, and it will not happen again.

In 1969 the National Government was elected on a manifesto which promised greater expenditure in education areas. The present Government has the mandate of the people to invest their money in education It began well, last year, when it increased the salaries of university lecturers and teachers Hut that was only the beginning. And now the Government is thinking of cutting back all Government expenditure I hey can go ahead and cut in other areas, such as Defence In the 1970 Estimates $10 million was voted for the expends of deploying forces in South East Asia, and yet only $7 million was voted towards the university bursaries, fees and allowances for a substantial majority of 33,000 University students in New Zealand and only $90,000 was voted for boarding allowances and bursaries for those receiving senior technical education. The Government's priorities would seem to be wrong and from their own point of view dangerous - for no other area of expenditure affects all New Zealanders, and when Government ignores the rumblings of dissent in this area it is signing its own death warrant Not every New Zealander favours our defence commitment to South East Asia, but every New Zealander is concerned about our educational system - every New Zealander passes through this system and increasingly New Zealanders are becoming disillusioned New Zealand must offer its children a good education Children can't vote but a well educated child will be able to handle successfully the added pressures of an increasingly technological society - and will benefit that society - New Zealand - as a result of good education. And the Government's proposal to hold increases of educational expenditure at 4% in 1971 is a short sighted attempt to correct past Government bungles at the expense of the future development of New Zealand Education is an investment not only an expenditure.

Government has announced that proposed plans are going to be dropped in an effort to hold increases in educational expenditure. Where will these expenditure restrictions hit?

Let us look at what could be hailed in tertiary educational development. In the universities it will probably affect cuts in university building programmes. Auckland's urgent need for a second university will remain as an urgent need. Canterbury University has suffered years of a divided campus. How does this affect the medical schools and New Zealand's chronic shortage of doctors? There are no facilities in any New Zealand centre other than the medical schools at Auckland and Otago for training of the extra doctors needed, and no remedy seems to be forthcoming other than increased expenditure to make more places available at the existing medical schools.

Canterbury's engineering school is overcrowded, but even more serious, there is a drastic shortage of technicians, trained by the Technical Institutes to supplement the work of New Zealand engineers.

These are all shortages in the areas where education can be seen as an obvious advantage to the economy - all areas of education that Mr. Muldoon approves of, as against the training of political scientists and philosophers, but even in these most obvious areas of education investment the Government is not fulfilling its responsibilities. Even if the Government does not recognise the value to the community of teaching its citizens to think and to criticise constructively, then surely it must recognize the need for doctors, technicians, skilled tradesmen, computer experts and agricultural experts.

Already the effects of restricted government investment in tertiary and especially university education, is making laughable New Zealand's contention that educational opportunities are freely available for everyone. Government is indicating that university fees may be increased This would finally knock the bottom out of any argument that contends we have a free and open education system We support the idea of every New Zealander being (axed for education, but we do not believe that certain groups should be penalized, e.g. overseas students, those people who enter university aged 21, people who have decided at a later age to benefit from a university education, and people forced by personal finances to attend part time This could affect up to 20% of all students attending university, the rest pay only one tenth of their fees. And what makes it worse - financially such a project of raised fees gives no gnat economic pain for the Govt. - it is just a sop to those members of the public that think that all students have long hair and waste their time at university and that therefore they, the students, should pay for this.

At least some university students benefit from bursaries and free tuition - but few technical institute students do, and the buildings that house technical institutes in most cities are in a shocking condition. You would think that the Government would train its own people rather than importing Englishmen. Mr MacIntyre has outlined what they are doing for young Maoris at the tertiary education level. But it is not enough - for more urban Maoris should be going through the Trade Training Schemes. Very few Maoris attend University or train in agricultural techniques at Lincoln and Massey.

Students are students for only a short time - and then they move into the community, where often they pay quite high rates of tax Today's students are quite prepared to pay additional taxes now and in the future, so that tomorrow's students may receive a good education. We recognize the value of education - both the economic value, the social value of an intelligent, unprejudiced, tree community and the personal value gained through a good education. We view any slow down in educational expenditure in N.Z. as heir? the most uneducated move that the Government could make It would be the result of stupid short-sighted, irresponsible and selfish expediency.

The Government obviously fails to realise the value of its investment in education. It appears that its financial advisors believe that education is like the construction of motorways or the building of warships, for they would suggest that a government can afford to restrict the growth in education spending this year in the same way it can delay the building of a mile of motorway and it will have little or no effect other than minor inconvenience I wonder why Mr. Talboys and his department have not informed the men of Treasuary that a child who receives a cut-rate education this year must live with it throughout his or her life. It all very well for official spokesmen to say we are not cutting education spending, but only the rate of its growth, but if you were a child attending a large primary school you might be denied experience of the written word because of Cabinet's decision to stop construction of a library in your school this year For this child might come with many of his friends, from a home whose only reading material is this week's "Best Bets". I would suggest that the effect of the growth culling exercise would be to give this child an inadequate education from which he must suffer for the rest of his life.

Now just to discuss two of the points of the education portfolio under consideration for reduction.

We have a Government which is prepared because of short term expediency to destroy what little understanding and international goodwill this country has in the Asian region by considering the introduction of discriminatory and restrictive fees for overseas students studying at New Zealand Universities. I was led to believe that the Government believed that the provision of university and technical education for students from overseas was part of New Zealand's contribution to international aid, but obviously I was wrong. For here we see this Government prepared for the sum of $250,000 to discriminate against those people who in the near future will be the leader of their respective nations in the Asian area.

We have a Government listening loo much to its advisors and not the people. For only last week in Auckland at a meeting with a group of University students Mr. Gair. (the Under Secretary for Education) said that delaying university building in 1971 would not prevent vent the opening of the second university in Auckland because the Government's advisors, in this case the University Grants Committee, have said that the Government could save time by merely taking the plans of the university buildings at Masses University and use them as the plans of the buildings for the second Auckland University. How much more short sighted interim and expedient planning must this country stand? When will we learn or rather when will Mr. Talboy's and Mr. Gair have the courage to stand up before this nation and say to the financial men of Treasury that the parents and children of this country desire and expect to receive for their tax money a first rate and well planned education system. Mr. Gair at that meeting said that he thought the New Zealand taxpayer would not stand paying any nun for education in this country. I would say again to Mr. Gair and the government that if the New Zealand public, who, after all, are nearly all involved in the education process as pupils, students, teachers, administrators, parents or grandparents are presented with the case of slowing the growth in our motorway system or increasing the provision of free textbooks and libraries in our schools they would say that they want their children to have the best education available and they would be prepared to pay for it. And we are quite prepared to make do with one of the best roading systems in the world for the time being.