OVERCROWDED SCHOOLS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16798, 14 March 1918, Page 4

OVERCROWDED SCHOOLS.

A delegation from the Auckland Education Board has returned from the North impressed with the need for providing more and better school buildings. The overcrowding described to the board yesterday is common to a great many country districts. It is neither new nor rare. The desire for open-air schools suitable to the northern climate is comparatively modern, but inadequate school accommodation is a condition which the families of northern settlers have had to suffer for many years. A few days ago the Minister for Education put forward his view of the matter. He said the Education Department could not be to blame because the Education Boards were provided with an annual vote for replacing old schools based on the life of a wooden building and a percentage of its capital value. On this presentation the upkeep of schools would appear to be very simple. But an Education Board responsible for a district such as Auckland does not find it so. A more serious matter than the upkeep and renewal of old buildings is the provision of new accommodation for growing populations. It is one of the pronounced faults of our educational authority centralised in Wellington that it attaches too little weight to the cost of, following settlement with educational facilities and is too grudging in its grantsfor districts which show a marked increase in population. A deputation is going to Wellington to seek a remedy. It may be told that war-time difficulties stand in the way, but it can be answered that the grievance complained of dates from long before the war, and that even in war-time it is discreditable to the State to neglect the education and endanger the health of its children.