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Against the introduction of any Block Grant System or radical revision of the present Code are the following points: -
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Under the present Codo all the Grant Schools are flourishing. Their buildings, staff, and standard of education provided are in all cases better thea pro-war,
and this in a difficult two years' rehabilitation period and with a now Code still having rough edges to be smoothed. This being so, no radical change should be considered unless there are very strong reasons indeed to warrant it.
A Block Grant or Direct Grant and freedom from financial control should only be given where the school itself makes some financial contribution towards cxpenditure. In the present Grant Schools the whole cost of running the schools is mot from grant and students' fces, therefore any extravagant or uneconomic expenditure falls directly on public funds or parents' purses, both of which Government has a duty to safeguard.
In any case where large sums of public money are concerned the Government has a duty to the public to see that adequate control exists to ensure the best and most economic spending of that money. Government has professional educational and financial officers who can surely satisfy the public that its money is being well used better than any voluntary Board of Managers, who, though having the best intentions, are handicapped through lack of knowledge which the professional is constantly accumulating through daily contact with problems. This does not mean that members of School Councils are deprived of the opportunity of being of service and reduced to figureheads. Their services still remain manifold and of great value as the attached list (7) shows.
If Government grant is to be reduced in any 3lock Grant scheme the same teachers salarics and educational standards can only be maintained by proportionate increase in school fees. It is not considered desirable that large Government grants should be given to schools charging high fees and thus only catering for the wealthy section of the community.
If a saving to Government by reduction of grant was essential it could be achieved by raising the school foes under the present Code. This is not, however, considered desirable at the present time when legislation has just been introduced prohibiting private schools from raising feus without Government permission, and when such permission is given only when school accounts prove a real ne d.
The present Codo gives financial security to the
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/Grant