Schools’ raffle draws complaint

Press, 16 April 1982, Page 1

Schools’ raffle draws complaint

Fund-raising during school hours by pupils of Aranui High School and Papanui High School yesterday drew a mixed reaction from the public. About 2060 pupils of the schools sold raffle tickets in Christchurch streets.

The raffle’s profits will be divided between the schools and the organisation which runs the Spirit of Adventure, a sailing ship which gives young people sailing experience.

A man complained to the Education Department about the pupils having been given time off to sell the tickets. He said that a pupil of Papanui High School had told him that the pupils had been offered more time off if they sold a specified number of tickets.

The department's regional superintendent, Mr B. K. Gainsford, said that an inspector was investigating the complaint. He (Mr Gainsford) sympathised with the complainant’s assertion that selling raffle tickets had little educational value.

. Each school’s board of governors had the authority to allow pupils to raise funds during school hours, but they did not have the authority to close schools. Mr Gainsford said, “To me. it is akin to closing the schools but it could be

argued the children are being educated. It is a fine point of legal distinction." The chairman of Papanui High School’s board of governors, Mr A. Sheppard, and the school’s principal, Mr P, R. Hay, disputed Mr Gainsford’s view.

They said that selling raffle tickets was educational.

“The pupils have to deal with the public and co-oper-ate with one another,” they said. “They are still under the control of teachers.’'

Mr Sheppard and Mr Hay said that the school’s board approved of this sort of fundraising only in exceptional circumstances.

In this case, the reasons for the fund-raising, to raise money for school equipment and to support the Spirit of Adventure, justified the approval. The board considered the school to have been open yesterday. Mr Hay said that pupils had not been offered extra time off as an incentive to sell tickets.

The raffle was good for everybody concerned.

“If there was no educational value in it, I would not have approved it and neither would the board," Mr Hay said.

Several persons had got in touch with him to praise they way the pupils had conducted themselves.