CROWDED CLASSROOMS

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 115, 9 February 1938, Page 12

CROWDED CLASSROOMS

Serious Position At Rongotai College PRINCIPAL COMPLAINS The serious overcrowding of classrooms at Rongotai College as the result of the non-provision by the Education Department of adequate accommodation in time for the opening of the college after the Christmas recess was deplored by Mr. F. Martyn Renner, principal of the college, last night. In an interview with "The Dominion” he described the position as Gilbertian. Last year, he said, the college roll was SGO; this year the total would be approximately the same. That meant that though for 12 months he had been making representations to the Education Department, the college was still without sufficient classrooms. One of the laboratories was being used as a classroom, which was an absurd position in view of the rapidly expanding district from which the school drew its pupils. The department, through its officers, had promised him that the college would be allowed to take over two rooms of the Education Board’s manual training centre, but nothing had materialised. A grant for additional accommodation at Rongotai had been approved by Cabinet, and plans passed on to the Public Works Department, but in the meantime the position at the college was acute. “We are using a staff-room built for 12 to accommodate 25,” said Mr. Renner. “It is not a fair thing, particularly in this hot weather. I object to my staff having to exist under conditions that would not be tolerated in any decent office or factory. “It’s all very well to say ‘take the classes outside’ —some classes it is not convenient to teach outside. I consider that having agreed to give up more than half the college grounds for the exhibition, we should be entitled to a certain amount of consideration if only as a quid pro quo. I’d sooner have a small school carried on efficiently than a large one where lack of proper accommodation inevitably causes loss of efficiency. “I dislike having to put boys into all sorts of holes and corners, and that' is what is happening at present. The gymnasium is being used as a classroom—when it was built with funds raised partly by the parents’ association and an £BOO loan from the Unemployment Board, the. building was not presented to the Government to be used as a classroom.

“What is the use of relaxing the curriculum and granting freedom from examinations if enough space for reasonable expansion is not provided also? Government houses are springing np all over the district which continues to expand rapidly, yet nothing is done to relieve the congestion at the college. It is difficult to visualise a more shortsighted policy.” BOARD’S POSITION

'The Wellington Colleges Board was well aware of the position at Rongotai College, said Mr. W. B. Fitchett, a member of the board, commenting on Mr. Renner’s statement. As far as the board was concerned, he said, it had done everything it could to persuade the Education Department regarding the necessity for increased accommodation. The college was practically a State school and the board had no power to authorise, building extensions, but could only make recommendations to the department.