EDUCATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27568, 9 December 1950, Page 11

EDUCATION

A Fortnightly Review

By Mentor The white paper presented to Parliament by the Minister of Education recently, indicates the magnitude of the problems facing the Government in providing adequate school buildings for the next 10 years. An increase of 42,000 primary pupils during the last five years means 1000 additional classrooms. How many of these have been built? The further increase of 89,000 in the next 10 years will require a further 2000 new rooms. The last 15 years has shown an increase of 15,000 pupils in our post-primary schools. Have the additional 400/500 class rooms plus the auxiliary necessary additions of science rooms, and other specialist requirements been built? By 1960—. 16,000 additional pupils will require a further 500 classrooms. If then we pre-suppose that today every primary and post-primary pupil is adequately housed, the Government will.still have to provide between 2000 and 3000 additional classrooms by 1960. And we know that the present position is not satisfactory—far from it. The Government’s announcement that it is calling for tenders for 1000 prefabricated houses from overseas, and the emphatic statements in the press that such houses are of high standard, tempts us to offer the suggestion that a similar inquiry regarding prefabricated standard-size classrooms might be opportune. We very much doubt whether the present organisation is keeping pace with the replacement of our education boards, let alone gaining ground to meet future needs. We might not like the idea of standardised prefabricated rooms, but the situation is desperate, and such a plan would at very least shortrcircuit the long months of delay while plans travel back and forth between education boards and Wellington. Comment on the desperate need for teachers to meet the situation has often' been previously made in this column. We very much doubt whether sufficient can be .secured under our present conditions and inducements. The alternatives are a return to the huge classes of 20 years ago or the closing of schools in outlying areas owing to lack of applicants for positions offering. This latter danger is already upon us m certain parts of New Zealand. It may, too, be necessary at an early date to ask all fit teachers to refrain from retiring till they reach the age limit, or even to raise that age limit temporarily. Once again “Supervisor” sends us an annual rhyme, inspired (?) by the school certificate English paper and writes: I’ve read each question three times through, And wonder what on earth I’d do If forced to sit the paper. How could one’s spirit find its wings, Compelled to write of such dull things. The muse just turns to vapour. A study of the essay subjects ' revealed such topics as “A Letter to the Listener.” commenting on the local radio programmes. “A Journey by the Express,” “Primary Schooldays,” “ The Country Telephone ” and “ Hydro-electric Power Schemes.” Think, readers, of the opportunities for invective, sarcasm and epithet, offered by these topics. How our editor will have to beware of his future “correspondents,” and how our postprimary colleagues will have to brush up their interest in the “Letters to the Editor” section of the paper if this type of question becomes common. We were definitely bored by pages 2, 3 and 4 of the questions paper dealing with absentee voting in England, but equally intrigued by the request of the examiner for reviews of “ One Modern Book (not Fiction, Drama or Poetry).’’ What an opportunity the examiner overlooked in excluding fiction. With thousands of candidates, he could have discovered the culprit in hundreds of “ who-dun-its.” without even reading them. And his marking chores would surely have been less boring than they will be as a result of the threefold exclusion. Our editor, at least, will understand our sympathy with the candidates who fail to “count every word ” of that 100-word precis asked for in another question, and who will therefore “be penalised ” for undue verbosity. Thanks. “Supervisor,” for your verses, the paper and your greetings. May you enjoy till next November your well-earned rest in that haven to which supervisors apparently retire between examinations. Tale-oiece (a true story*.—Scene: A "C ’’ Grade schools’, cricket match—a bov in slips drops an easy “sit'er”— the square-leg fieldsman ‘urns to the xe a eher-nmnire at square-leg and in a voice filled with disgust confides. “ What could you expect. His father's a school teacher.”