OVERCROWDED SCHOOL

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 36, 11 February 1926, Page 9

OVERCROWDED SCHOOL

AN AUCKLAND CASE.

(By Tatoiraph.) (Spatial to "Tfcs Evsnini Post")

AUCKLAND, This Day

The Richmond West School, in Grey Lynn, present* a glaring ease of overcrowding that shows how acute the accommodation problem has become in the Auckland schools. Thirty-five children in an infant class were being taught yesterday in a basement-room, where the ceiling was low enough for the infant mistress to have pinned object lessons on it. In sise the room was 4ft by 12ft, or about half the floor space for an ordinary class of this number. But the" only real ventilation was through the doorway, which also admitted a good share of light. Two windows were provided, but as they were both fixtures the task of both teacher and children must have been a trying one but for the unusually cool weather that has marked the re-opening of the schools this year. As it was, the position was being taken cheerfully enough, and the littlo voiced piping their answers in this basement-room that was never intended to he anything but a shelter shed, brought a surprising amount of cheer into the place. For nearly two months classroom work has gone on there. For the week and a half since reassembling and for the spring and summer period before the holidays there were over 450 inside the school—a school with floor space for 388. Immediate steps are to be taken by the Education Board to relive the congestion.