SCHOOL DISABILITIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16925, 10 August 1918, Page 6

SCHOOL DISABILITIES.

CAMPAIGN BY TEACHERS.

POLITICAL ACTlb'' SOUGHT.

The disabilities under which the work of, the primary (schools of New Zealand is being earned on wore considered last evening at a conference attended by members of the Auckland Headmasters', Women Teachers', and Country Teachers' Afisocialions. Mr. R. Harrison, president of the Headmasters' Association, which had convened the conference, presided.

The chairman said the teaching profession was at present honeycombed with discontent, and service conditions were fast becoming intolerable. So unsatisfactory had they become that many parents able to afford the expense were sending thoir children to private schools, mostly denominational, where, through the use of money, an environment could exist that few public schools could have. The Minister for Education, when in Auckland, had stated that grave danger threatened the present free and secular education system through this growth of denominational schools, and that it lay with the teachers, as believers in the system, to arouse public opinion, and to bring pressure to bear upon Parliament in order tint the danger might be averted. This, Mr. Hanan declared, could be done only by political pressure. If the reforms which the teachers sought vA>re granted, said Mr. Harrison, their schools need fear no competition, for wit i environments equal, the ; -.-e system, being superior, must ho abl' 10 maintain supremacy. The environment that was sought by the wealthy tor their children was just as necessary for the children of the rest of tho community, and it was that for whioh the teachers intended to fight. Though they disliked the necessity for political pressure the Headmasters' Association had concluded that it was tho only remedy. It was proposed to ask the New Zealan,' Educational Institute to promote a petition to Parliament similar to that which had been so successful in the case of tho railway workers. In order to prepare for this by moulding publio opinion they had prepared a plan of campaign, under which it was proposed to seek remedies for the following disabilities :— . Inadequate staffing of schools, necessitating the placing of classes under young and untrained neginners; overcrowded and. unhygienic class-rooms; congested' playgro'-.nd spaces; lack of Government depots for the supply of school requisites; inadequate grants to school committee* lack of sufficient disinfection of schools and want of proper sanitation; insufficiency of shelter accommodation in school grounds; and lack of luncheon-rooms for both children and teachers.

On the subject of under-stafiing and overcrowding an instance was cited where 105 children were taught by one young pupil-teacher; another where 130*wero kept in a room 40ft by 22ft; another where a room built for 55 pupils accommodated 70 and yet another where 100 occupied a room 26ft by 24ft. It was stated that at the Parnoll school the shelter-shed accommodation was 500 short of the total number of pupils; and that at Beresford Street school the boys, numbe*ing more than 350, were entirely without shelter-shed accommodation.

The plan of campaign drawn up by the Headmasters' Association was considered and adopted, with the following planks:— A press campaign and efforts to' obtain the support and co-operation of the Auckland branch of the National Council of Women, the. Labour unions, the' Workers' Educational Institute, the Farmers' Union, and the Employers' Federation, and also a closer working arrangement with the School Committees' Association.

Committees were appointed to take charge of the various sections of the plan of campaign, and it was resolved .that the scheme should be submitted to the Management Committee of the .Educational Institute,' with a request for endorsement.