Primary Schools

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30154, 11 June 1963, Page 3

Primary Schools

S i r,—lf “Practitioner's Mate" were to visit a certain schoolroom in Christchurch (not more than 10 years old) on an overcast day, he would see 45 children working under the glow of one central 60watt bulb. Should the teacher wish to prepare work at school during the evening, this same 60-watt bulb is the only illumination for the table (in one corner), the blackboard, and the storeroom (i.e., reflected by the varnished door). Apparently members of the Canterbury Education Board believe that a 60-watt bulb has X-ray properties. How else would the blaze of light it produces light up the blackboard upon which the teacher is writing? Either the gentlemen of the board studied the properties of light on a dull day in a Canterbury Education Board school, or phosphorescent blackboards are about to be issued. —Yours, etc., LET THERE BE LIGHT! June 10, 1963.

Sir, —“Practitioner's Mate" has a point. He wrote of the conditions in primary schools, but Mr Spencer tells him to have a look at an intermediate school. I would add that many people, particularly teachers, have for a long time noted the superior physical (emphasis on this word) conditions existing in intermediate, compared with primary, schools. Would Mr Spencer agree to the setting up of a fact-finding body composed of, say, two members each from the Chamber of Commerce and the Housewives' Union, under a suitable chairman, to make a survey of the physical conditions of the schools available to the children of Christchurch from Primer I to Form Vl?—Yours, PARENT. June 10, 1963.