THE KOWHAI SCHOOL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18102, 29 May 1922, Page 8

THE KOWHAI SCHOOL.

PROPOSAL BY MINISTER. OPPOSITION FROM PARENTS. PRIMARY EDUCATION NEEDS. The proposal that the recently-erecte3 Kowhai school be used aa a junior hign" school, as part of the scheme formulated by the Minister for Education, is not meeting with favour in the district concerned. In fact, keen disappointment is being felt by the parents, very many of whom have been looking eagerly forward to the time when their young children would be able to attend a school which was not only near at hand, but which had been constructed, it was stated, mainly for the education and training of infants. There is at the new building an infant Bchool of six rooms, two of which were designed for a kindergarton. The class rooms of the infant school surround a central courtyard, intended as a playing area. At present the children in the district attend various make-shift schools. Rooms under the pavilion and grandstand at Eden Park accommodate a large number, this being known as the Eden Park" Model School! Tht> schoolroom attached to St. Alban's Anglican Church, Dominion Road, has been a make-shift for a long period, and working conditions have beep the opposite of favourable, hs the building, though used for a Sundayschool, is totally unsuitod for the successful teaching of scholars on the week day. St.Barnabas' Hall, Mount Eden, has been used as a temporary while the larger surrounding schools! —Mount Albert, Edendalo, and Mount Eden —have all been very much overtaxed, and all have_ been hoping for respite with the completion of the Kowhai school.

So great is the feeling among parents in the district that a special committee has been appointed, with Mr. G. A. Jackson as chairman, to deal with the matter, and a petition being circulated in the district sotting forth • the views of the householders on the matter. This will bo presented to the Education Board on Wednesday, June 6. " The whole district is seething with indignation," said Mr. Jackson on Saturday. " We have been told that in a month or so the new school would be opened and our troubles ended. With the idea of post-primary education we have no fault. to find, but we object to the filching from us of a school specially designed ana built for the younger children. In fact, to make it servo the purposes of a Junior High School most of the internal fittings will require re-modelling.'' Mr. Jackson stated that, as chairman of the committee organising the petition, ho had written to the Prime Minister, the Hon. C. J. Parr, and Messrs. V.- H. Potter and F. N. Bartram, M.P.'s. "We maintain," continued Mr. Jackson, " that Parliament alone should settle the matter, and, before any Owler-in-Council is issued, we claim the right, that we, as parents, should be heard." Already over 1000 people had siomed the petition. Mr. L. E. Rhodes, chairman of the Kowhai School Committee, which is still in existence, stated that the committee was opposed to the taking of a school specially designed as an up-to-date primary school and particularly for infants. The co-operation of the committees of the adjacent schools was being sought, and a stroncr body of public opinion would be at the back of the petition when it was preuented to the board. Mr. Rhodes concluded by saving that he had no nuarrcl with the idea of a Junior High School, although, candidly speaking, he regarded it very much in the light of "an experiment. Nothing definite regarding the new scheme was yeb forthcoming from the board.