School Buildings

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21534, 25 July 1935, Page 12

School Buildings

Investigations by a reporter of "The " Press" go to show that, as far as it affects Christchurch, the complaint made at a meeting of the North Canterbury branch of the New Zealand Educational Institute that many schoolrooms are " un- " hygienic, dull. and o>!d" >•■ justified. In many of the I older . cnooh of the city, ov/ir.g ; main;;.' to a de.sn; for irnore. n\v | fronts and tu the enslavement til' j early arehitests to "he Gothic tradition, heavy stone waiis have baffled all attempts at modernisation, and narrow, pointed windows admit a minimum of light and collect the maximum of dust. It must be hoped that the Education Department does not propose to wait until these schools begin to decay before it sets : about replacing them: for t.hetrouble is that most of them are as durable as they are depressing and inconvenient. At the moment the Government is drawing up plans for a campaign to eliminate bad housing in New Zealand*. It could not do better than begin with the schools, in which such a large section of the population spends the most important part of its life. The cost of renewing school buildings which are out-of-date v.-ouid not be excessive. Indeed, some of the newer schools, particularly those which have been built on open-air principles, are a proof that much of the heavy expenditure which has been incurred for school buildings in the past has been unnecessary.