HIGH SCHOOL ZONING MAY BE COMING

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29138, 25 February 1960, Page 11

HIGH SCHOOL ZONING MAY BE COMING

When the Canterbury School Committees’ Association meets the Christchurch Post-primary Schools’ Council soon, th deputation may or may not have a well-documented case of alleged anomalies and difficulties in getting new pupils admitted to the high schools and courses of their choice. But the denutation will be influential, none the less, because its represents the primary schools committee and therefore the parents of a very large part of Canterbury. The school committees feel, however vaguely, that all is not well when (with new high schools now being built at the rate of two a year) a youngster can not gain entry to one near home. The deputation is as likely to seek a frank statement of the facts as to offer any strong protest.

But behind the scenes and not as a result of this latest move —the enrolment question at Christchurch high schools has been undergoing close scrutiny. When a number of disgruntled parents (mostly in the south-west) protested last year, the Minister of Education (Mr Skoglund) asked the District Senior Inspector of Post-primary Schools (Mr J. L. Hup ter) to investigate. He also asked the Post-primary Schools Council to furnish Mr Hunter with any information required. A report was made and that seemed to be the end of the matter. However, since then, the Education Department has been examining the present state of affairs and it is believed that the situation has been discussed with high school principals in at least one meeting. It is reported than another round-table conference will be held soon. The remedy to present ills, believed to be the subject of discussions, is the inauguration of limited zoning of schools and pupils based on a scheme operating in Auckland? The Auckland scheme, which may be modified to suit Christchurch, has a large central zone in which pupils may attend any of a number of central schools. This includes most of those long established and long popular by well-earned repute. The peripheral schools, mostly new ones, are regarded as district schools and are each zoned accordingly. The secret of any success the scheme may enjoy is that some schools are allowed an “out-of-zone quota.” This means that they may accept pupils from virtually anywhere in the whole area if there are strong claims of family association, need for a particular strength in study, and so on. Although all Christchurch seems to have set itself against school zoning in the past, there are now many who think some sort of zoning may be preferable to the annual scramble for places and the deep hurt which is caused by rejection at one, two, or even three schools. The Christchurch freedom to select pupils from anywhere for the places available could lead to ; abuses. A fact seldom mentioned i in public is that most high schools i are interested in building up their i sixth forms. These are the longI term pupils who will bring credit to the school. They are also the pupils who affect a principal’s salary and also the number of the higher-paid “positions of responsibility” to which a high school is entitled. Teachers would not be human if they did not consider both advantages.

The effect of this is that, in selecting new pupils, a high school is keenly interested in those

planning a "professional” course and planning to stay right through. There may not be sufficient places for “general” and “practical" pupils wanting to attend the school for their own reasons. These pupils may try somewhere else and fail to gain entry for the same cause. It may be a third try which succeeds, possibly with some modification of the course wanted. There is keen inter-school competition for the cream of the primary schools and the considerations mentioned above are one root cause of the trouble. This is Also a reason why some pupils have, in fact, to travel across the width of Christchurch from their homes to a school where they at last gain entry. The present state of affairs has led to duplicate applications for admission to schools in case there is no luck at the first. Because principals don’t know at once that there has been plural application, the pupil with such applications sometimes gets advantage over late-comers who have applied at one school only and missed admission. Some sort of a zoning is claimed by some to offer a better prospect of better balance among the schools with pupils getting the instruction to which they are best suited. It is no longer a contest beween the older and newer schools. Some of the newer ones are turning pupils away already. A few years ago It was thought that the building of more schools would solve the problem. It has not. Unless so many schools can be built that accommodation will exceed the number of pupils, there can be no completely free choice of school and course. This is unlikely. And this strengthens the belief of many people that limited zoning 'would help. The Christchurch Post-primary Schools’ Council has tried to avoid zoning and it has never interfered with the autonomy of individual schools. But there is some feeling that it must now face the issue and that this is not beyond its sphere of planning and co-ordina-ting the development of the high schools of Christchurch.