Case For Northland Education Board

Northern Advocate, 26 July 1938, Page 7

Case For Northland Education Board

The following is a copy of a resolution handed by the Whangarei branch of the Teachers' Institute to Mr J. G. Barclay. M.P.. the Minister of Education. and the Northern Wairoa branch of the N.Z.E.T.;— “At the annual general meeting of the Whangarei sub-branch of the N.Z.E.1.. held on July 2. it was resolved that the necessity for a separate Education Board for Northland was an urgent and vital matter. The resolution was carried unanimously, which shows that the movement has the full support: of teachers. Teachers who have transferred from districts where smaller boards function are emphatic in pointing out that the conditions and facilities are far superior to 1 hose obtaining under a larger board. Under a smaller board there is more personal touch between teachers or. the one hand and board members and board officials on the other. Board members, under a smaller board, represent a smaller area and are able to keep in close touch with the commit-

tecs in their wards, and are thus move conversant with the needs of the different schools. In a large board area, such as the' Auckland board controls, it is impossible for a member to have much personal knowledge of the requirements of the schools in the aiea he represents, on account of the size of his ward. "We believe, therefore, that the educational needs of tbe North cannot be adequately served by a body so far removed from us as the Auckland Education Board, and that the requirements of the North warrant the establishment of its own board. We would point out that some of the schools in Northland are situated approximately 250 miles from the Auckland board office, and are served in many cases by indifferent means of communication. It is impossible for these schools to be efficiently served by such a remote body. -This matter has been brought to the notice of the M.P. for Marsden by the School Committees’ Association and the Whangarei Chamber of Commerce. "When the various bodies of the district who are interested in the question express so unanimously the desire for a separate board, it is the hope of the teachers of this district that you will do your utmost to ensure that the clause empowering the setting-up of a separate Education Board in Northland will be retained in the Education Bill,’ I