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Wednesday, February 24, 1971
$610.8 MILLION ON EDUCATION
Not Including Cost of Three Decisions Already Made In Principle
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Government spending on education in the next financial year is
estimated at $610.8 million, compared with $272 million five years ago.
But Sir John Cowperthwaite, Financial Secretary, said today the
figure was "understated" because it did not include provisions for three
decisions that had been made in principle, but whose detailed application
had not been formally approved "so that it would not be entirely proper to
ask the Council to vote funds for them in the context of the Estimates."
The first was the revised structure of teachers' salaries, which
would cost about $13 million a year initially.
The second was the new and extended programmo of post-primary education,
calculated to cost $9 million in recurrent costa initially, plus $10 million in
capital subsidies.
The third was the formal decision already taken to provide primary
education free, though the actual details of the scheme had not been fully
agreed yet.
Sir John said it would probably cost initially $14 million a year,
including an additional subsidy to meet certain essential costs of school
operation at prosent net from additional contributions by parents, not from
the basic fees.
/It