Correspondence School roll doubles

Press, 21 December 1978, Page 20

Correspondence School roll doubles

T h e Correspondence School has almost doubled in size, both in student numbers and in staff numbers, during the last 10 years, says the school’s retiring principal (Mr H. E. McVeagh). Mr McVeagh retires at the end of the year after 12 years as principal of the school. The primary school roll has risen from 1000 to more than 2000 between 1967 and this year. Similarly, the secondary full-time pupils have increased from about 500 to about 1000, the adult part tinie students, from 5000 to about 10,000 and the staffing has doubled from 200 to 400, he said. “A few years ago, the main growth in the roll was in medical cases —

accident victims, psychologically disiuiued children and pregnant schoolgirls. But the trend is now for more pupils to be enrolled for distance reasons. They form more than 60 per cent of the primary school roll,” said Mr McVeagh. He said that one of the mail) reasons for the increased roll was the reluctance of country families to send their children to boarding school. “They prefer to keep their children on correspondence.” He said that an increase in the number of schools and improved bus services has not deterred people from keeping their children on a correspondence course.