SECONDARY EDUCATION

Evening Star, Issue 22192, 21 November 1935, Page 2

SECONDARY EDUCATION

ERECTION OF NEW HIGH SCHOOL BETTER FACILITIES IN OFFING It will_ be a natural consequence of the opening of the new High School in South Dunedin that there will next year be a fairly substantial reduction in the roll number of the Otago Bovs’ High School. ■ ’ I’his will be welcomed by the rector and staff, for during recent years it has been necessary to use as class rooms several small rooms which were not suited for that purpose, and were never intended for use in that way. With the reduced roll number it will be possible to provide good class room accommodation for all the pupils, and this will mean better teaching conditions and the removal of many disadvantages under which this great school has been working for some time. The large roll number has not meant an increase in the size of classes, for a master has been added to the staff for every additional 30 pupils, but the use of unsuitable rooms prevents both masters and pupils front doing their best work, and it speaks volumes for the school that its usual high standard of work has not been affected by the conditions under which it has been working. That the drawbacks from which, it_ has suffered will now be removed will be welcomed also by the parents of present as well as of prospective pupils. QUESTION OF NAME. The matter of naming the new school was again brought up at yesterday afternoon’s meeting of the Otago Boys’ and Girls’ High Schools Board, when a letter was received from the Minister of Education (the Hon. S. G. Smith) in reply to the board’s intimation that the , name “ St. Kilda High School ” (which had been previously suggested by the department was unsuitable because the new school was situated within Dunedin City and not in the St. Kilda Borough. ' The Minister said it was still considered that a place name should be adopted rather than such a. name as “ King’s High School,” which was more or less open to the same objection as was raised to “ King George V. High School.” There was, of course, no objection to the board using a local name without official sanction in the same way as the Dunedin Technical School was called the King Edward Memorial School locally, _ although it was officially the Dunedin Technical School. In the same way the local name for the new high school in South Dunedin could be chosen by the board without regard to the official title, which would be quite correctly “ South Dunedin High School.” After a brief discussion it was decided. on the motion of Mr F. H. Campbell, that the name “ King’s High School” be adhered to locally. GENERAL. In a response to a request that the Governor-General (Lord Galway) should open the school, His Excellency’s military secretary replied that Lord Galway regretted his inability to make an engagement so far ahead. The question was therefore left in abeyance. The board received with thanks the gift by Mr A. V. Fleet of a set of Waverley novels for the library of the , new school. dV