Uncontrolled Pupils Cause Concern

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31345, 15 April 1967, Page 17

Uncontrolled Pupils Cause Concern

From time to time pupils were found who frustrated every attempt to help them, said the headmaster of Burnside High Schol (Mr C. Cross) at a meeting of the board of governors on Thursday evening.

He said in his report to the board that their attendances were irregular, and parental control, almost ineffectual. “The only solution appears to be a home at which these children can be properly controlled and to which they should be committed before they have got into serious trouble,” said Mr Cross. “As I understand it, the Child Welfare Department is unable to do anything really effective for these children at present The chairman (Mr B.Zeff) said that they could be dealt with before they caused trouble. Mr Cross said that if they could be put in charge of someone who could control them and see that they continued school, and look after them after school before they went home, these children could be saved from more serious consequences. Professor A. S. Carrington said that while he was sympathetic to having counsellors to look after problem children, he could see no way out under the present laws. “There were immense legal difficulties,” he said.

The board decided that the board’s representative on the Secondary Schools' Council be instructed to support any other proposal which might go forward dealing with this problem. The gymnasium scheme was being held up through no fault of the board and the P.T.A., said Mr Zeff. He was referring to a circular letter from the Minister of Education (Mr Kinsella) on the limitation of finance. Members were concerned at the delay in the gymnasium. Mr Zeff was last evening reelected chairman of the board. Other officers elected were: -Deputy-chairman, Professor Carrington; representative on the Christchurch Secondary School Council, Mr A. Foley; appointments to committee, Messrs Zeff and Carrington.