What will be the cost of the Education Act ?
This week we are able to give some indication of what the new Act means in terms of £ s. d. to one or two areas in the Salford Diocese.
The Editor of the Salford Diocesan C.P.E.A. Bulletin, himself a headmaster, writes: " One school, built in 1938 at a cost of £78,000, now requires a further £80,000 to bring it up to the standards of the new Act. A Catholic school in Accrington, built to accommodate 350, is now considered fit only to accommodate 40 nursery children, and another school has to be built for the juniors.
'' Additions to a new primary school in Stretford were estimated in 1944 to cost £10,000; in 1945, £16,000; and in 1947. £23.000. When was your school built?" he asks. " What is it going to cost you to bring it up to the required standards?
" In addition, what is it going to cost you to bring all the county schools surrounding you to these same standards? What is it going to cost you for your new schools and your new county schools? Tot this up for the whole country in this time of crisis . . . and then feel your pulse."
"The cost of education in an elementary school to-day is greater than the cost of educating a child at a public school before the war.
" The cost of building some schools is reckoned at £400 per school place. Add to this the cost of maintenance over the ten years from 5 to 15. One estimate works out at £2 10s. per day . . . . 10s. per hour . . . . Every time a boy dips his pemin'the inkwell, bang goes sixpence . . . . And this is the era of free education!