CHILDREN KEPT AT HOME

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28540, 20 March 1958, Page 5

CHILDREN KEPT AT HOME

School Bus Wanted At Taupo (New Zealand Press, Association! TAUPO, March 19. Ten children have been kept home this week by their parents on Crown land development blocks several miles from Taupo because the South Auckland Education Board has declined to provide a school bus service. Till now the children have been transported by vehicles belonging to the Lands Department. The Education Department says a bus service would not be economical for fewer than 24 children.

The children’s parents complain that sometimes it has not been possible for drivers to leave their work at a set time with the result that sometimes the children have had to remain at school till late afternoon.

Two weeks ago representations were made to the board to have a bus travel over the route but the board said that on the score of economics it would not be possible. Last Saturday, the parents decided to keep their children from school.

The Taupo school committee says the transport of children from developmental areas should be a normal cost of land development where the cost is above that met by the education board.