279
FHBLIC
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Reference :-
C.O.882/12
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE. LONDON!
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Service clerk, but should hold the special post of Medical Accountant on a pay of Rs.7,500.
23. We need not refer at any length to the expenditure on anti- malarial works, as the position was summarized by the Government in its despatch of 31st December, 1930,* with which was enclosed a memorandum by the Director on the recent history of this cam- paign. We cannot criticize this scheme on its technical side, for it rests on authority, but we are disposed to question its financial aspect, not in regard to the amount of its cost, but to its incidence. Owing to the Macgregor Report the Government has so localized anti-malarial work that the point may justly be raised that the majority of the inhabitants of the island, for whose relief from malaria nothing is now being done, are being taxed for work which will give relief only to the wealthier communities in Plaines Wilhems. We do not recommend that the charge of Rs.100,000 a year for anti-malarial work should be transferred from the general taxpayer to the ratepayers of the localities which benefit, for we are anxious to do-nothing which would impede or delay the cam- paign. But the point is of some interest in view of the facts which we examine in detail in chapter XIV; so many of the local charges of the ratepayers in this same area are already borne by the general taxpayer.
The annual charge for anti-malarial works should in future appear only in the Medical Head of the Budget and not in part under the Improvement and Development Fund. Our financial programme will give the Colony sufficient resources from 1932 for continuing the campaign.
We note that the Sanitary Engineer receives an allowance of Rs.3,000 from the Head" Public Works Annually Recurrent," in connexion with the chlorination of Port Louis water. This is open to the same objection as the allowance made to the Director of Public Works in connexion with waterworks; the latter allowance will lapse at the end of this year and we recommend that the allowance to the Sanitary Engineer should similarly be discon- tinued. This post should at the next vacancy carry the rate of pay which we suggest for junior technical officers, Rs.6,300-9,000. 24. Our views regarding the sanitary services carried out by the Medical Department for the local bodies are expressed in chapter XIV, as the issues raised are primarily those of financial and administrative principles. The transfer of certain services to local control will still leave local services costing Rs.90,000 in charge of the department, though for the most part carried out by contractors. We have had evidence that the contractors actually impede sanitation by their insistence on fees as much as by their negligent or unskilful work.
+ C. 84813/31 (No. 2]: Not printed.
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We have recommended the abolition of night-soil fees in general, and we add that the department should review every one of these rural contracts, not merely with the object of reducing the cost but in order to decide whether the service is really needed in the interest of public health. The pit latrine should have lessened the need for this kind of service which is seldom of great value in a rural area. Where it is decided that a service is necessary, steps should be taken to transfer both the control and the payment of the services to the local board.
CHAPTER V.-EDUCATION.
(a) Schools Department.
The system controlled by the Schools Department consists of nine Aided Secondary Schools and 128 Primary Schools, of which 51 are Government schools and 77 are aided.
2. The nine Secondary Schools are, from a purely financial point of view, of comparatively small importance; the average attend- ance is 1,174 pupils and the number of teachers 119. The schools are assigned by the Senior Inspector to different classes and this classification determines the rate of the grant-in-aid. The rates are applied (a) to inspection grants which are given for each pupil who has attended the school for at least 240 days in the year, and (b) to result grants, which are based on the number of pupils pass- ing the examination in each of the upper five classes.
The last available figures show an expenditure of Rs.24,411 on inspection grants and Rs.12,240 on result grants, making a total which is slightly in excess of the amount of Rs.34,000 provided on this account in the budget of 1931-32. The inspection of the Secondary Schools is entirely in the hands of the Senior Inspector of Schools who is responsible for the allotment of the inspection grants. The result grants are given on the published result of the class examinations which are conducted by examiners appointed from outside the Schools Department.
The Acting Superintendent of Schools is supposed to criticize the amounts of grants-in-aid, and has indeed proposed to the Colonial Government that the rates should be halved. He con- siders that, in view of the rate of fees charged by the schools, a rate which in four schools, at least, ranges from Rs.12 to Rs.15 a month for each pupil in the higher classes, some of these schools should not require so large a measure of assistance from Govern- ment; in many cases, moreover, the qualifications of the teaching staff are low. The Colonial Government, however, has not accepted this proposal and we agree with their decision. We do not consider that the case against the Secondary Aided Schools is proved; whatever may be the qualifications of the teachers, the
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