FREE SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28748, 20 November 1958, Page 4

FREE SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS

Board Criticises Scheme (New Zealand Press Association) DUNEDIN, Nov. 19. The chairman of the Otago Education Board (Mr D. W. Meldrum) said today the free textbook scheme had not been thought out very carefully. The board had received details of the operation of the scheme as it affected secondary pupils in district high schools, and the secretary-manager (Mr R. F. Phillipps) commented that it would place a tremendous amount of work on the board. “We will have to keep individual records for more than 1300 children and pay direct to parents for second-hand books we purchase amounts from a few shillings to under £l,’’ he said. The High Schools’ Board was fortunate as its schools were all close to its office. The Education Board would be managing the scheme with pupils 100 miles away. As far as shelving went, he was in a quandary, said Mr Phillipps. The department indicated that the board would be reimbursed for the cost of providing any necessary shelving required in the district high schools for the storage of books, but he had heard that amounts would be provided only for permanent shelving for class sets of books. This meant that ; when books came in at the end j of the year, they would have to be stored on tables in a classroom.

The deposits will be collected by the head teachers from each pupil and held by the board, which refunds direct to the parents on the request of the head teacher. If books are lost or destroyed, the pupils concerned are required to pay in sufficient money to bring the deposit up to the original figure of £l. Damage to, or loss of textbooks in excess of £l, has to be recovered directly from the pupils at the time. The department indicated that it was not proposed to make any payment to primary schools for shelving.