PROPOSED INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL.

Evening Star, Issue 22383, 6 July 1936, Page 11

PROPOSED INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,; —The policy adopted by the subcommittee of the Otago Education Board set up to go into the matter of establishing an intermediate school at Macandrew Road is worthy of criticism. The school committees of the schools affected have not been consulted, although these committees represent the parents of the children. To the parents and the school committees of Forbury, Cavcrsham, St. Clair, and Macandrew Road, the proposal must have fallen like a bombshell. The tactics of the sub-committee arc anything but fair. If the sub-committee had been fair-minded,, it should have met the committees concerned, and have welcomed free discussion in the matter before suggesting that the proposal he put into operation. The sub-commit-tee, whose names have not been published, prefers to adopt a dictatoial policy and force the sssue, whether or not its proposals meet the wishes of the committees concerned. Apparently the intermediate school at North Dunedin is to be closed. If this school has been an outstanding success it would bo a grave blunder for it to be closed, because the pupils of that district will be deprived of a superior type of education. If thn North Dunedin Intermediate is a failure, the residents of Dunedin South have no desire to have a white elephant forced upon them. Twenty years ago the Education Department promised the Macandrew Hoad School Committee a new school, and during the interval that promise has been renewed many times, but never honoured. It is now tff be honoured by the erection of a type of school that in no way meets with the approval of the committee, and I have the authority of my committee to state that wc are opposed to the attempt to deprive the householders of their rights, c In no other district is there to be found a band of parents who assist the progress of education more chan the parents living in Ibis district.

On two nights a week a function is' held by either the ladifes or_ the committee, the proceeds of which go to supplement the inadequate grant given by the department. Lately the school staff, the ladies, and the committee have raised £2OO, which was used to purchase school equipment and repair the floor of the gymnasium, built with the assistance of the committee, but used for' the last 15 years as a class room. Will the authors of this proposal explain to the parents of children attending Macandrew Road School why they have permitted the use of a gymnasium for a class room for such a long period when a gymnasium is ill-suited for a class room.'' The sacrifices made by the parents are now to be dishonoured, the attachment they have made for the school destroyed, that interest of parents so necessary for the progress _pt a primary school is to be smashed, the children compelled to* scatter themselves among the schools of the district, and the equipment bought by the efforts of the parents confiscated. in these days of fast-moving traffic, children should not be compelled to attend school at a greater distance from homo than is necessary.—l am, etc., on behalf of Committee, JJ. K. Ross, Chairman. July 4.