HEATING IN SCHOOLS

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30804, 16 July 1965, Page 17

HEATING IN SCHOOLS

Proposal Not Accepted A proposal that auxiliary heating be provided in schools for the benefit of teachers working after school hours was defeated at a meeting of the Canterbury School Committees’ Association. The boilers of school-heat-ing systems were turned off well before the end of the school day, so that teachers staying after 3 p.m. to prepare lessons for the next day’s classes had to work in the cold, it was said. Many of the newer schools with large areas of glasssurface walls were very cold after 3 p.m. The association has already asked the Canterbury Education Board to provide electric heaters for such circumstances, but a reply from the board, read to the meeting, said that electric heating was not permitted in schools as a matter of Government policy. After the meeting considered this reply, it was moved that the Federation of School Committee Associations be asked to approach the Government to provide auxiliary heating in schools.

Speakers supporting this move said that it was desirable to encourage enthusiastic teachers who worked late, and provide them with adequate conditions. Those who opposed it said that school committees themselves could perhaps buy two or three heaters for their schools, although it was said that many committees did not have the money. The motion was lost by 23 votes to 18.