DIFFICULT PROBLEM

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 149, 23 March 1928, Page 15

DIFFICULT PROBLEM

CHILDREN WHO WORK BEFORE SCHOOL i PARENTS’RIGHTS AND THE STATE’S DUTY Dominion Special Service. Dunedin, March 22. “Many of the older pupils seem to be too tired or too sleepy to give concentrated attention to their work. It would ecem that the school is a place where they come to rest, not to work. This was one of the arresting statements in a report presented to the Otago Education Board by the senior inspector (Mr. F. V/. A. Stuckey) on a school in a dairying district in Otago. The report of the senior inspector read : "The pupils arc orderly, and well behaved. They are. however, lacking in alertness, aud especiallv in the upper classes. Owing to their somewhat comatose condition, their attitude to their work is rather passive than active. Tile attendance has been satisfactory. The results of the year’s work, however, are disappointing. The pupils, as a whole, tiro unresponsive. It was difficult to obtain answers from them on matters whicli had been carefully* dealt with by the teacher. After! a thorough investigation. I am unable to attribute this either to lack of intelligence or to faults of instruction; many of the older pupils appear to be too sleepy or too tired to give concentrated attention to their work. It would seem that school is a place where they come to rest, not to work. From inquiries made it transpired that most of the senior pupils work before school for hours varying from 3.30 ti.m. onwards to 7or 8 a.rii. Tn the circumstances, it is not surprising that the efficiency of the school is not higher J han fair The pupils are poor readers. ’ "We are here to look after the interests of the children in every sense of the word," said Mr. Wilkinson, ‘and when we have a report of this nature placed before us. wc must take some action. On previous occasions aye have had reports of a somewhat similar nature from our attendance officer in regard to boys who were engaged early in the morning on milk or paper runs, and when those reports were submitted we made full inquiries, with the result that we found that m the majority of cases their educational interests were being sacrificed through the work they were doing. The present report of the senior inspector is slight y different in character in that while the boys in the city were employed by strangers for the sake of remuneration these children are working for their own parents. Hence the case is a little more difficult.” Mr. Wilkinson went on to say that the report came from a school situated in a dairying district. It was a difficult and delicate question to deal with. It seemed to be a case of where the parents’ rights and interests in the children ended and where the Slates duty began It was certainly a very unsatisfactory state of affairs when parents inflicted injustices on their own children—injustices which the State would not allow to be inflicted on other people’s children- It was the hoaid s duty to remedy this state of affairs. The State went to trouble and great expense in establishing schools- and training teachers, but here they had the unfortunate position of the childien being in an unfit condition to receive the instruction imparted by the teacher. The State was not getting an adequate return; the teacher was also suffering an injustice. As the success of a teacher very largely depended on the success of the children the nspector s report in this case showed, however, that it was neither the fault of the teacher nor the fault of the children, but the fault of the conditions under which the children lived and the demands made on them by their parents. The board should not countenance anything which interfered with the educational advancement of the chiluren; tlio hoard should give publicity to the matter and endeavour to remedy such a slate of affairs, which was to be greatly <1C -V lO motion was carried to the effect that the report should be forwarded to the Education Department with the comments of the board, and ask that consideration should be given to the question of legislation forbidding the employment of children before certain hours in the morning.