CO129-603-2 Education Department- revised grant code 5-4-1948 - 6-1-1949 — Page 127

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Grant Schools and guarantees the teachers salaries at their present levels. Any removal of this security by a Block Grant which made salaries partly dependent on fee receipts might cause serious repercussions among the teaching staff.

Experience has shown that the financial control exorcised by Government is necessary. Indications are that were it removed, salaries, leave passages, and general expenditure would be on a more liberal scale than allowed for Government Teachers and Government Schools. Particularly are these indications true of the 5 Anglican Schools asking for freedom from financial control. These schools also are tho only ones collecting 'subscriptions' retained by the school in excess of 50% of tuition fees. During last year these 5 Anglican Schools collected a total of approximately $250,000 in compulsory pupils' sunscriptions beyond what is considered adequate to mect legitimate school needs, and much of this money the schools still rotain unspent. The levying and retention of such large sums, which in fact seems contrary to the provisions of the present Code, hardly scons to argue in favour of these Schools being absolved from financial control, and if the true desire was to save Government cxpenditure on grant it could be done by crediting the se receipts against expenditure as is done with the ordinary tuition fees collected.

There seems to be no other satisfactory principle on which the amount of grant needed can be calculated other than the difference between approved expenditure and income from fees. As the main cxpenditure, that for teachers' salaries, may vary quite considerably from year to year, depending on the category of teachers employed, it also seems that the present method of yearly assessment of grant is the only workable method. The method of calculating the amount of Block Grant suggested in (3) is a poor imitation of the present method and not so well adjusted to variations in need, which variations under a Block Grant would have to be met by variations in fees charged.

The present grant does in fact give what amounts to a Block Grant, approved in advance, for all the items of "Other Charges" other than Repairs and Equipment and pays for teachers' salaries exactly according to yearly needs.

If a Block Grant is calculated on the basis of fee ruceipts being at a certain level and the Managers have complete freedom to alter the fous at will, it is obvious that at any

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