OVERCROWDED CLASSES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18021, 21 February 1922, Page 9

OVERCROWDED CLASSES.

DETRIMENTAL TO HEALTH.

The report on conditions at the Mount 'Albert School, which was mado by Dr. T. H. Pettit, contained some remarks on the subject of overcrowding, which were pot published in yesterday's Heuald. When Dr ; Pettit made his inspection, he was accompanied by two members of the school committee. In his report, the doctor stated that a most serious position existed in Standard HI. classroom, where 90 children were overcrowded in the one room. ■ The regulations provided for a maximum of 60 children for the room, but under the present conditions each child had only eight square feet of floor space instead of the required 12. Moreover, there was very little crosß-ven-tilation. The conditions, stated the report, would be undesirable in winter, let alone at the present stuffy period. The air was stagnant and detrimental to the hcilttt of the children, whether they were there for four or Bix hours a day. He suggested that those members of the school committee who wished the children to receive their education under these conditions should try the atmosphere themselves to see how they liked it. With reference to the statement of the chairman of the school committee*, Mr. E. P. Inwood, that tho parents supported the committee's action in opening the school to full time daily, Dr. Pettit thought that these parents would more than likely change their mind 3 5T they made tflnmselves conversant with the conditions. He was confident, in fact, that they would not allow instruction to be given under the conditions that prevailed in Standard 111. classroom. Mr. E. S. Inwood, chairman of the school committee, said last evening that the overcrowding referred to in the report would be relieved to a certain extent by the opening, in about three ■weeks' time, of the new Kowhai Street School. It wag expected that about 100 children now attending the Mount Albert School srould go to the new school wnen it was opened.