THE RAILWAY "CUT."

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 189, 11 August 1919, Page 5

THE RAILWAY "CUT."

MANUAL TRAINING HAMPERED PUPILS CANNOT ATTEND. The railway curtailment is having a serious effect on the manual and technical training carried on at country centres under the Auckland Education Board. It is not that the travelling instructors cannot keep their appointments at the different places visited by them. The instructors spend more time in travelling than heretofore, but that is all. The trouble lies in the fact that the pupils, like those of the district high schools, cannot in many cases get to the classes at all. The classes are held at a number of different centres, are attended by children from the fourth standard upwards, who in the past have come in by train for the most part in the morning, going home again at night. Now that trains are not available at suitable hours for the double journey, a large proportion of the children simply do not come, and the work is very severely curtailed. An example of the new conditions is to be found at Otahuhu and Pukekohe. Under the old time-table there were sufficient pupils to enable full-time classes to be maintained at each of these places, the mstructords being fully occupied, and the pupils coming in in relays. Now, only half-time classes are maintained in each of the two centres named, the same instructors serving for both. The attendance is confined to children who do not need to come in by train. At Dargaville a further difficulty has cropped up, the Railway Department refusing to carry up from Auckland a quantity of wool required for instruction in wool-classing, there being no wool available in the district at this time of year. The classes have accordingly been abandoned.