SIZE OF CLASSES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 82, 4 October 1944, Page 6

SIZE OF CLASSES

REDUCTION URGED

EFFECTS OF THE WAR'

The need for smaller classes in . schools, which would mean the - provision of further buildings and more; teachers, was. discussed in the House of Representatives yes- , terday afternoon, when the vote in the Estimates for the Education Department was under considera- ' tion; . Mr. M. H. Oram (National, Manawatu) said the necessity for smaller classes had: been .regarded by the New Zealand Educational Institute as one of the prime reforms in the educational system, but, unfortunately, up to the present nothing of a very permanent, nature had been done. That meant more buildings and more teachers.. Buildings might be provided to some extent by extending the intermediate school idea. That would free certain of the other buildings, which might be utilised for the smaller classes. It was absolutely essential that there should be "more teachers, and to that end wages and conditions must be made more attractive and the number of training colleges increased. He would suggest that when another training college was established it should v be established in ' close conjunction with one of the agricultural colleges. EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES. The Prime Minister said efforts were being made to equalise educational opportunities?, and the carrying on of the consolidation of v schools and increasing . the number of district high schools extended the scope of education. A good many of the schools required expansion, and he believed that every school, no matter what its size, should have an assembly hall. " . Rooms in ' primary schools had' been very much increased in size; They were intended for 30 pupils, but the war came and school building had to be discouraged in the same way as house-building. The size of classes was a disappointment to everybody connected with education; but the relevant and inescapable facts of the war situation had to be taken into consideration. The reduction of classes was a question of buildings and teachers, and if.the training colleges had to be extended that' was- the country's responsibility.