CHILDREN’S EDUCATION

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 December 1940, Page 7

CHILDREN’S EDUCATION

SATISFACTORY REPORT. [BY CABLE —PRESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.] LONDON, November 30. Figures relating to the education problem that has been raised by the air- raids, and by the evacuation, were given to-day by Mr. Ede, who stated that the talk of a “breakdown in the education” of a large proportion of the children was a gross exaggeration. The elementary and secondary school population of England and Wales was about 5| millions. Of this, he said, 1|- millions of the children were in neutral areas, which, generally speaking, were not disturbed, and where school work was proceeding almost at a normal standard. In the reception areas, Mr. Ede said, there are 2,500,000 children, including 450,000. children who had officially been evacuated. A high proportion of this number were receiving full-time education, despitethe additional numbers. Thus four-fifths of the school population was receiving instruction which reached a high state. He added that about 1,000,000 children have remained in the evacuation areas, and their position is not satisfactory. Their parents’ refusal to evacuate them had created a. difficult problem, but even here, apart from a particular centre and some of the coastal towns, where the schools were still closed, the school attendance was being tolerably maintained. The problem before the education authorities was how to . shake down to the war. conditions and to pass from emergency arrangements to something more stable.