INSTITUTES DECISION No Teaching In Unsafe Rooms

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31987, 14 May 1969, Page 18

INSTITUTES DECISION No Teaching In Unsafe Rooms

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, May 13.

Teachers will be directed to withdraw from classrooms which the New Zealand Educational Institute considers create safety or health hazards for staff or pupils. This was decided tonight at the annual meeting of the institute when consideration was given to ways of raising the standards of school buildings.

The institute decided that all schools should be brought up to the standards of the buildings code for new schools of a similar size. In the case of a rise in the roll, the institute decided that the school should be brought up to the standard of a new school of the same size within two months of confirmation of a rise in grade. Mr F. Dodd, of Wellington, said he knew of a school where 47 female teachers and a student teacher had to “compete” for the use of a single toilet At another school boys and male teachers had to use two toilets built against “an elderly wall, the variegated hues of which would rival a Carnaby Street boutique." Miss H, J. Anderson, of Feilding, said there were cases where teachers and pupils were being forced to work under conditions which would be condemned by any factory inspector.

One South Island school, built in 1889, was still awaiting replacement. This was promised in 1965. Another school less than 25 miles away appeared the same as it did in a photograph taken in 1909. “The only work that has

been done is to brick up the open fireplaces and put hardboard on the floor to help cut down the dust problem and cover up cracks and holes,” she said. The conference began yesterday and will continue until Friday.