SCHOOL CONSOLIDATION

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume XLV, Issue 3079, 12 April 1927, Page 5

SCHOOL CONSOLIDATION

PBOPOSED LEESTON MOVEMENT

MANY ADVANTAGES CLAIMED,

LAKESIDE SCHOOL FAVOURABLE

OTHERS STILL DOUBTFUL,

There was a good response to an1 invitation issued to householders to attend a meeting convened for last evening in the Leeston Public School to debate a proposal to establish a Consolidated school in the Ellesniere' district.

Information upon tho advantages and workings of such schools Was imparted by three representatives Of the Canterbury Education Board, Messrs W. P. Spencer (chairman), W. A. Banks (member), ajid C. E. Kirk (secretary), and by Mr McLeod, Ghief inspector of Schools. The chairman of the Leeston School Committee, Mr D. H. Reid, presided. The attendance was fairly representative of the school districts which will be affected should consolidation come into effect, and there wero indications that the question is arousing the interest among householders that it warrants. While the general feeling seamed \o be a tlesire for enquiry rather than to express definite views, a certain measure of opposition from some of the 1 schools was noticeable, while others i were lukewarm. In contrast to this, the Lakeside householders were stated to be wholly and entmislast'cal'.y in favour of a consolidate 1 school being established at Leeston, artd were ready to join with it as soon as arrangements could be made.

The question lias further to be considered by the remaining schools, whj wish for definite information about bus routes and charges before expressing themselves in favour, of consolidation

or otherwise.

KEEP, TO TIIH COUNTRY

1 Mr W. A. Banks sw.id lie liad been w teacher for 25 years in couriiry schools, and lie thought it was just that, the country child should get as many opportunities for education as the town child, and in the consolidated school they had .some ehanee of approaching that. He had had experience' in sole charge schools and in others staffed variously up to six or seven teachers, and he had observed that the larger the school, up to a certain number, the better was the teaching. He wanted to convince householders in the school districts outside of Leeston that it was to their advantage to bring their children to a consolidated school. Wherever consolidation had been experimented with in other parts it had proved successful. At Oxford last week he had been assured by the former chairman of a school committee which had disbanded when the consolidated school had been opened that the new regime was giving every satisfaction and that the teaching given was superior. At Matamata, he had been informed that there was not a former school district which had joined in with the main school whose residents were not perfectly satisfied with the work being done there. The Technical College in Christchurch broadcasted its prospectus among all pupils in North Canterbury upon gaining their proficiency certificates, and endeavoured to draw the country children into town for further education. He regarded that as a mistaken policy. It should be the aim of country people to keep their boys and girls in the country, and the establishment of a consolidated school a£ Leeston wouid help considerably to do that.

At Oxford many of the children who were carried in the conveyances provided had a shorter distance to walk than they had before the establishment of the consolidated school. The disadvan-

tages of the small school were just as real in the playground as in the classroom. The playground had a greater part in the formation of the character of the pupil than the school itself. Competition was naturally keener where classes were larger. Unless there was competition, there was a tendency for the more forward pupils to rest upon their oars instead of working on steadily. In America, consolidated schools had proved a great success. Pupils Were conveyed as far as ten miles to the central school, and there was not one district that he knew of which had gone back upon consolidated schools once they had been established. If that could be done in America it could be done just as well in New Zealand, which had equally as good roads in the country.

Among the disadvantages of console dated schools that might be put forward as an argument against them were that a few children might have further to walk. Pupils who lived within two miles of the school wore not carried by the bus at the Government's expense. This might apply to some of the Doyleston pupils who lived within a two-mile radius of Leeston. The advantages of consolidation-, however, far outweighed this little inconvenience. In the country districts, the schools were generally the centre of the population and meetings and social gatherings

were held in them. It was the practice when a school was closed through the introduction of consolidation to offer i the residents of the locality in which it was situated the first opportunity to purchase the building, so that it could still be retained for the holding of public gatherings.

NOT AN INNOVATION. MrMeLeod, Chief Inspector, outlined some of the procedure followed in setting up a consolidated school. He said he was a firm believer in consolidated schools, which had proved a success wherever they had been tried. In various other places in the North Is< land than Matamata, they had been commenced in hilly country where the roads were not as they were in this I county, yet the running of the buses had given no trouble. In Canada, where : the snow lay on the ground in winter, motor vans were to be seen taking pupils to school in far greater comfort than if they had been walking. When the householders of a school district expressed a desire to join fore: es with-a larger school the Department considered the condition of the build-

ings that would be discarded. These might be nearly new, or might be due to be rebuilt, in which latter case consolidation would be encouraged. The residences, too, were taken into account. At Oxford, one of the assistant teachers had been allowed the use of one of the^c>ld residences, and drove the car conveying the children to school in the morning and back again at night. With- regard to cost, it was a rule that the new order must not cost more than j the old. The cost of staffing a consolidated school was always lower than ! staffing a number of small schools. With ' regard to conveyances, definite proposals would have to be submitted to the Board, to be forwarded to the Department, setting out the cost of the proposed new scheme. The estimated cost of the conveyances and the routes proposed to be taken were required. The contractor would be liable for the pay- ] ment of licenses, heavy traffic fees, ] and so forth, far which there was a special low rate for school vehicles. [ Children under ten years old would be ! paid for if living over two miles from t i the school and those over ten if living ! i [Over three miles. Lists would have to • be prepared giving the names of the j children and the exact distance that j each lived from the proposed consoli- j

dated school. In general, the Department did not like paying for a conveyance to take less than 20 children, as the cost would then work out at more than if they had remained at their own school.

OPINIONS WANTED,

Mr C. E. Kirk, secretary to the 5 Board, advised the householders to get \ down to definite proposals. 'If fho ' views of the residents of the school dis- ) tricts which it was proposed to close j could be obtained as to whether they j were agreeable -to consolidation coming ] into effect or not, the meeting would j then know how to proceed. j

Mr Banks suggested that it might be difficult to eome^to a decision right j away, but the views of householders would have to be known eventually. If a district did not want consolidation it ' could not be forced upon it. There waa no compulsion about the scheme

SITE OF SCHOOL. { An enquirer wanted to know where 'i the proposed school would be situated j .if decided upon. He thought Doyleston would more nearly approximate the centre of the district than any other locahty. Mr J. C. Free understood that there would be two consolidated school ceni tres in this county, one at Leeston and one at Southbridge. Southbridge children would not have to be conveyed to Lccston, or Leeston children to Southbridge. A Brookside householder enquired whether the Education Board bore the whole cost of conveyance or whetfeex any of it fell upon the individual parent. Mr Banks replied that there was no •j-ost to the parent except in the in stances previously mentioned. KILLINCHY CKITICISM. Mr Caldwcll, of Killinehy, read a paper purporting to reply to a circular issued by the chairman of the Leeston School Committee. He had reckoned that the average number of pupils taught in this district last year per teacher w^s 29.4. The average number who would be taught by each teacher if the schools had been consolidated was 47.8. In the face of these figures, he contended' that the teacher in the consolidated school would have more pupils to teach and therefore each child would receive less attention. Secondly, it was very doubtful whether more competition in a class was desirable. There was a type of child who/ in face of competition, did not work ho well. Ito was questionable whether competition was the best incentive to good work. Further, if the bus did not call for each child, the children would be worse off than at present. Not much harm was done by getting fet wet while walking; it was standing in wet clothes that did the damage. Again, modern medical opinion was to the effect that crowding should be avoided

as much as possible. The children ought to be healthier in a small school than in a large one. As to the "social advantages," under the present system the teacher lived in the midst of the school district, mixed with the parents and pupils, and took an active part in the affairs' of the district. In a large school, the teachers lost that personal contact with parents and pupils that was so necessary if they were to develop the best that was in the child. Teachers with experience in large and in small schools were of the opinion that in the small schools the bigger children helped the smaller ones and took an interest in them. A teacher in a small school had a child under his charge for about four years. This was an advantage over having it for one year only. As a general rule, the school {.was the centre of the social life of a | district and if the school were closed the social life M%uld naturally suffer. At Killinehy, the householders did not. think it necessary or practicable to join in consolidation. They had a new .school and good teachers, and the opinion of the majority was that everybody was satisfied.

: j ■ Mr Greenwood referred to the good > | record made by the Little Bakaia j School in recent proficiency examinai tions, and questioned whether th-.s could be bettered at any larger school. Mr J, Stringer mentioned that in order to have travelling expenses paid to consolidated schools, the children were compelled to drive. It would be cheaper in some eases for them to cycle and he thought those who did so were equally entitled to have the cost of travelling paid for them. j Mr Banks said that this was a regu Ration of the Education Department | and not of the Board. The allowance ! would be paid to cyclists only if the road over which they travelled was declared unsuitable for a vehicle to drive over. OVERCOMING PAROCHIALISM. j Replying to Mr Caldwell's contra- | tions, Mr Banks said it was pleasing to t think that anyone should go to the I j work of preparing such a paper, but as I , far as the arguments in it were eon- •; corned, they were quite out of date. In ■ ! the larger schools, it was the ambition • of every pupil to beat the one ahead jof him. If the children were imbued j with an ambition to reach the top of class they would work much better

both while at school and i'^ the years ahead of them. They did not want to teach the go-slow policy in schools. With regard to the fears expressed that classes would be placed at the mercy of pupil teachers, this was an utter fallacy^ At the present time, there were no pupil teachers in schools as in the old days. There were a few probationers, but these were not counted as members of the staff, and every class was placed under a certificated teacher. Killinehy School, with a roll of 70 odd, was one of the nigst difficult to teach. If the roll could be increased to 81, it-would be entitled to three teachers. Doyleston was in a similar, position. If farmers would overcome their parochial feeling, which made them imagine there was no better districts school or children than their own, they would never regret the day j on which they made Leeston a consolidated school. The chairman likened this parochial element to the crab, which buried itself

in a hole and lived to itself. People of the present day should advance with tlie times in which they were living. In reply to another question, Mr Banks said that every school district had on the central committee. The consolidated committee would' not be elected in one centre only, but would be representative of the whole area from which pupils were

drawn

SMALL SCHOOLS HANDICAPPED

With further reference to Mr Caldwell 'a paper, Mr MeLeod said it was plain that one class was much easier to teach than a number of classes, even though there might be only half the children. This was'an answer to the contention that a teacher would have a greater number of pupils to manage in a consolidated school. Other advantages were that a big school made possible instruction in woodwork, cookery, and science, and perhaps the running of n. secondary department in connexion with the consolidated school, which would not be possible otherwise.

Mr Calchvell hold that when one teacher instructed a number of classes, say, from the infants to the second

standard, in one room, the smaller children, if they were progressive, would pkk up a groat deal from the standards above them and learn ahead of themselves. They could be pushed ahead if the teacher saw fit to do so, whereas in a larger school they would have to wait their turn. He regarded

this as an advantage

Mr MeLeod admitted the truth of this statement, but said that on the whole, the big school undoubtedly had advantages. The sole charge teacher was under a big handicap in having to attend to up to eight classes, and it was very difficult to give the individual attention necessary-

Mr Greenwood raised the question of

school sports, and said that if the ! schools were centralised this would break up competition, among teams instead of fostering it. \ The team at the consolidated school would have no rivals and competitions could not be organised. He thought the district wouhrl lose a lot of interest by the closing of the small schools, not only in soprt, but in social life. People, he thought, were quite satisfied with the schools as they were.

IMPROVED ATTENDANCES.

In reply to Mr Free, Mr Banks said that the attendance at the Oxford School had greatly improved since consolidation had been established there. On the West Coast, where schools were consolidated, the average attendances were better than in Canterbury,. in spite of the notoriously wet weather over the Alps.

Mr Spencer said that at Oxford, when the proposal to establish, a consolidated school was first put forward, some of the schools had been strongly opposed to the idea, but their outlook was np-w changed, and they were enthusiastically in favour of it. The old school buildings were still being retained for^ social purposes. '

In reply to Mr G. Nairn, Mr Banks said that the Board was. quite agreeable to the consolidation of one school only, if the residents wished it. This had been done in South Canterbury, where Geraldine Flat School had joined forces with Geraldine.

ECONOMY IN TRAVELLING,

Mr L. B. Coe: Is the site of the consolidated school definitely fixed for Leeston-, or would it be possible to have it at Doyleston, which is nearer the centre of the district

Mr Banks: That lies with the districts themselves. If you can prove to Leeston people that Doyleston is the centre, and they are willing for their children to be carted there, the Board will be agreeable.

The chairman pointed out that 6 it Would be cheaper to bring seventy pupils from Doyleston to Leeston than to take the whole of the Leeston pupils to Doyleston. The fact that Leeston wWs increasing in size would also have to be allowed for.

Another speaker, considered that Doyleston would be nearer to Brookside and Killinehy Schools than Leeston, as ma*iy of the children from those parts-would have to travel through. Doylestan to reach Leeston.

Mr Eeid said, that the question' of a centre had yet to be worked out, but^ when that was done he thought that Leeston would have the preference for

cheapness.

The query was put whether, if a consolidated school was opened, it. could be discontinued after a trial had not proved it satisfactory.

Mr Banks said it was impossible to answer that question) as there had never been a precedent. No school that had entered upon consolidation had wisied to go back to the old method. >

LAKESIDE DECIDED.

Mr W. J. Nairn, chairman, of the Lakeside School Committee, said that Lakeside was willing to come into a consolidated school as soon as .they could get" the bus and arrange the route. The committee and household-, ers considered that consolidation woitfd be of great benefit to the Lakeside school children.

Mr Banks said that it now remained to map out the bus routes and procures an estimate of the cost of conveyance, and then decide whether consolidation could be worked to better advantage than the present method.

On the proposal of Mr W. O. Bennie, a vote of thanks was passed to the representatives of the Education Board arid to the Chief Inspector for their

presence.