SCHOOL REQUISITES

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 34, 9 August 1921, Page 7

SCHOOL REQUISITES

QUESTION OF SUPPLY

EDUCATION BOARD'S SCHEME

A DISTURBED CONFERENCE.

The question of the supply of school requisites was discussed at a conference between the Headmasters' Association, members of the Education Board, aad the? Wellington School Committee's^ Association last night: Certain proposals on the matter were made recently by the Education Board, and objection was raised by the Headmasters' Association, on the gronnd that additional burdens would be placed upon head -teachers, and that the adoption of the proposals would require the creation of a- fresh Department'at each school to deal with the. distribution of requisites. • TOO VAGUE. Mr. F. Bethune, president of the. Headmaster!' Association, said, it wa* felt that the Education Board* scheme was top vague. The bulk of the responsibility would fall upon . head teachers, and the solution of the problem would not be an easy matter. It had not been j made clear whether the cost •of the scheme would be great. It was considered unfair to ask teachers to spend an extra hour eveiy daj in/ attending to details connected . with the distribution of the school books and stationery. Tile head- teachers were not antagonistic to the idea, but they desired 'that some more workable scheme should be propounded than s that proposed by^ the Education Board. ' '

Mr. W. H. Foster said it was clear to the heail teachers that the responsibility of administering, the scheme would devolve upon them. The headmaster of. every school would have to account for the finance to his school committee, and this would entail additional duties. ..:

My. R. E, Simpson, a member of the School Committees' Association, thought the Education Board^ should establish a central depot, at which the children could purchase their books.

The Chairman (Mr. A. J. White): "That would suit the-City Council from the point of view of tram-fares."

Mr. J. H. Whittaker, of. the School Committees' Association, su"7ested that the Education Board could use a motorcar for the purpose of distributing schoolbooks at", the variousi schools. The'chi'dren could then buy them as required.

Mr. Hennessev, of the Te. Aro School Committee, said that hie committee proposed tha.t tlie distribution of schoolbooks should he entrusted to committees. AH that was necessary was to set the parents to "foot the. bill'^in the first" place. ' i ' : . UPSETTING SCHOOL ROUTINt. Mr. Foster doubted whether the Education Board could run the scheme on a businesslike basis. ' Were the idea put into operation, school routine would be upset, for children would be continually running to the head teacher to buy books. ' That would prevent a headmaster attending to his scholastic duties. Again, would it be good business for the State to set the head teachers tb dowork that any ordinary bookseller would employ a girl to do at 30s per jFeek? It was useless to discuss the matter further. What they should concentrate on was to induce the Education Department to supply stationery free of cost. Voices: "And text-books." '■•• Mr. Foster: "Text-books are another matter, but I think that the number of text-books in use could be reasonably reduced." ' CO-OPERATION NECESSARY. Mr. T. Forsyth (chairman of the Education Boai'd) said, it was admitted that if the board's scheme; were adopted acertain amount of . overhead expenses would be incurred. Until the schema was Tunning it was impossible to say what those expenses would be. To make the. scheme a success it would be necessary to secure the co-operation of the head teachers, and he would not expect them to do the work for nothing. There need be no interference with school duties, for a stall could be opened at each ■ sch~ool a quarter of an hour before the school work commenced. The stall could be easily run by a-juniorsassi«t-unt. He admitted that the°~headmaster would-be responsible to the school committees for the finances, but he thought the scheme was worthy of a trial. A similar scheme had been worked successfully in Canterbury, where the board had made a profit of £200 in two years. Mr. White said that the School Committees' Association was in favour of the supply of free school-books and requisites,' but the Government was not prepared to go that far at present. Therefore, the duty devolving upon the school committees and others interested was to see-if something cotild not ,be done to help" parents in securing school-books and requisites at a lower cost. ' For that reason, might not a scheme such as that proposed be tried ? >' y Mr.- J. J v Clark, a" member of the Education Board, thought-the headmasters were making a mountain out of a molehill. At Maramu School, requisites were distributed before school hours, and the work of the school did not suffer. The scheme procosed by the "Education Board would result in a considerable saving to parents.

Mr. Hennessey did not think th« scheme would be workable. He considered that it would break down in the distribution at the schools. To his mind there should be no objection to committees being allowed to use their capitation for buying books and requisites, and retailing them at lower pric«s than parents at present had to pay. Mr. A. C. Blake, headmaster of Lyall Bay School, stated that the scheme in operation at his school, mentioned by Mr. Clark, was adopted during the war., The committee had unanimously appi^ached him with a request that* he should' distribute the requisites, and he had' agreed to co-operate with' them because he believed that in buying, stationery outside the children were not getting value for their money. Contrary to what Mr. Clark had stated, the distribution did not take place before school hours, but when the school opened. The scheme had been a handicap to him, as he had not been able to attend to other matters' while he wns superintending the distribution of the requisites, and he was prepared to give it up any time the board or the committee wished him to do so. •" He was quite certain that the scheme submitted by the board was impracticable, because it was too much to expect the school masters to assume the responsibility for, its success when they had other duties to attend to.

AN UNEXPECTED DENOUEMENT,

Mr. White said he did not think the arguments put forward by the heaHg masters were tenable. There was tdo much waste going on to : day in con-, nection with school requisites, and headrcasters were largely responsible. Half of the ,cost to the parents could have been cut down if the head teachers had eliminated waste. • - ' ■

At this stage." Mr. Bathune signalled to tho headmasters to withd.ra%. "We can hardly sit here and listen to that tirade by 'the chairman.." remarked Mr.

Bethuno. "We cum here in a friendly spirit and wen quite willing to assist you in every possible way, but we do object to accusation* which the chairman cannot prove." > Mr. White: "I can prove them any day'in the week." The headmasters then,left the room. ' Mr. White: "The headmasters are out to wreck the scheme, and it is quite time we took a definite stand and said exactly what we think." ': . ■ Mr. Hennessey deplored what the chairman bad said. He did not think that there was any unnecessary waste in the -schools. "I think it was" quite uncalled for to castigate a number of gentlemen who came this evening for an amicable discussion," he remarked.; He trusted that Mr. White would apologies for what bad occurred. . . ~- Messre. J. 0. SHorland and other member,; expressed regret at what had , happened. The suggestion was made, that Mr. White should apologise to the head teachers. ' . The Chairman said that he was willing to apologise, but he could not withdraw anythirig that he believed. Some discussion took place regarding' the form of the chairman's apology, but no decision on the point/was reached, and the meeting adjourned for-s-fortnight.