CROWDED CLASSES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 85, 11 April 1945, Page 6

CROWDED CLASSES

OTAHUHU HIGH SCHOOL DELAY IN USING ARMY HUTS A strong protest against the conditions under which children and teachers were being forced to work at the overcrowded Otahuhu Technical High School was made by Mr. W. H. Fortune at a meeting of the Auckland Education Board this morning. "What is the reason for the long delay in making more Army buildings available to the school, as promised?" he asked. "It is a tragedy that our children and teachers are being forced to work in corridors, shelter sheds and cloak rooms," said Mr. Fortune. "The Army buildings in Victoria Park, some of which have been transferred to the school, though others which were promised have not yet been made available, are an eyesore in the park, and the Mayor is doing all he can to have them removed. I cannot understand why the promised buildings are not transferred to the school."

The board's architect, Mr. A. B. Miller, said that last November an application was made to the Public Works Department for a number of classrooms, workrooms and an assembly hall, not only for the Otahuhu Technical High School, but also for the new Balmoral Intermediate School, the Takapuna Grammar School, the Elam School of Art, the men's hostel at the Auckland Teachers' Training College, and the Kowhai, Pasadena and Manukau Intermediate Schools. The board had asked that the buildings be taken apart in sections, so. that they could be re-erected without difficulty at the various schools. Instead, they had been dismantled in a piecemeal fashion, and contractors said they would have preferred to handle new timber. At Otahuhu a number of classrooms, but none of the workshops which had been promised, had been erected. The additional rooms could not be expected until next term. Extra accommodation for Balmoral could not be secured for six weeks. Mr. Miller added that in the application to the Works Department the fact had been underlined that, if the classrooms for Balmoral and Otahuhu would not be available by the beginning of this school year, the board wished to be notified, so that they could make other arrangements. No such notification had been received.