OVERCROWDED SCHOOLS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume IX, Issue 85, 25 March 1919, Page 3

OVERCROWDED SCHOOLS.

Ito the editor 1 Sir, —I shall be glad if you will kindly publish in your widely-read paper a few' lines from me in the hope that they will meet the eyes of members of Education Committees in the district and those of other people interested in the welfare of the school children. I would like to impress upon the members of School Committees the necessity of supporting the action of the School Committees’ Association in their resolutions to the H.B. Education Board and the Government in w’hich they call attention to the necessity ' of remedying such general and local grievances as the schools suffer from at the present time. Little notice is taken of demands from individual School Committees, and I am of opinion that it is only by united action that we can obtain what is really necessary for the welfare of the children. One of the crying evils at the present time all over the Dominion is overcrowding, and it is high time the Government took steps to remedy it. Not only is the health of the children suffering by it, but the teachers cannot get the results they should, because of the large numbers they have in their classes. As an instance of overcrowding in the school at Pukahu, we have Co children and two teachers, in a room 36ft. x 17ft. In the years 1913, 1914, 1915, and when the roll stood at 47, 17. and 49, the Inspectors reported in favour of the extension of the school. In 1918, the Department informed us that as we had room for 60 children, they could not grant any funds for an extension, and in the same year Mr. Roach, chairman of the Education Board, admitted tna* the teachers w’ere working under very difficult conditions with 54 children on the roll. What must be their lot now with 66? I would like to see Mr. G. Mcßav. the member of the Education Board take more interest in the schools of the district. We have not had the pleasure of a visit from him for at least three years, and I think that some more energetic man should be elected in his place. We want men of action, not figure heads, and I hope that members of the local Committees will also wake up and take more energetic action than they have in the past.—l am, etc..

F. T. AVAR EFIELD. Member, Pukahu School Committee. March 24th., 1919.