Waiwetu School.

Hutt News, Volume 1, Issue 15, 21 October 1927, Page 7

Waiwetu School.

The opening of the new school at Waiwetu on Monday last marks a step in the right direction, for the day has come when the educational needs of the district should receive their proper attention. For some years past, the Central School and Eastern Hutt have been overcrowded, a fact that has made the work of the teachers much more difficult and has impaired considerably the general efficiency of the schools. In spite of repeated protests by committees, the Board and the Department have made but little attempt to remedy conditions that in many countries would cause a popular outcry. Without in any way suggesting that the powers that be are shirking their responsibilities, or that the local representatives are not alive to their duty in this matter, we feel that far-sighted-ness is not one of the merits which they possess. In fact, it is abundantly clear that the policy which has held in the past is about to be continued in the future, for, allowing for the rapidity with which the new settlements have grown, it cannot be said that any preparations have so far been made to cope with a future growth. This is clear when one considers the present situation of the schools. In the first place, the acute situation in both Central and Eastern Hutt schools will not be relieved by the opening of the new school, for only 75 scholars in all are being transferred from these schools to the Waiwetu School. Obviously, the overcrowding of which we have heard so much will still continue unabated in the older schools. To look at the matter from a different angle. Some 280 children were transferred from the temporary school at the Racecourse to the school at Waiwetu, and to these were added about 75 scholars from other schools, making a total of 355 scholars in the six rooms of which the school is composed. Apparently no provision is being made for the natural increase in the population of this district, and no attempt is being made to prevent the overcrowding which is a feature of the larger schools in New Zealand. When the new settlement was lanned, it was arranged and pronised that school accommodation would be adequate. It seems that in this instance, adequate means usual, for the conditions obtaining at present in the new school lead us to believe that before long it will be quite as crowded as the other schools. It seems a pity that with 90G children in the new settlement, at least one half of whom are of school age, the powers that be did not make better provision for educational facilities. A school of six rooms is clearly too small to contain all the children who should attend, for if it is full to capacity at the present moment, with an average of about sixty children per room, the

overcrowding even by the end of next year will be more acute in this new school than in the older ones.

We should like to hear that the representatives from this district to the Board, and the other persons interested were coming forward to place the position before the Board in order that the new school, which is obviously needed, may be provided for.