WIRELESS IN SCHOOLS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3671, 22 July 1924, Page 11

WIRELESS IN SCHOOLS.

INNOVATION IN NEW SOUTH WALES. (From Opr Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, July io. The proposal to establish wireless in outback schools, following upon the tests at Bourke, has, as one of its main aims, the removal of that sense of isolation from the smaller remote communities which is one of their greatest handicaps. The idea primarily is to afford them some compensation by this means for the lack of those social and intellectual advantages which the city enjoys with its daily newspapers, bringing to it the news of the world; its lectures, concerts, and other musical and theatrical entertainments. In the smaller out-back communities it is hoped that co-operation will enable the local schools, with their wireless, to become social centres 1 at night; common centres, in short, for the enjoyment of all those pleasures which are at the door of their city cousins—opera, high-class concerts, organ recitals, and other musical entertainments, lectures, addresses, and so on. And just as it is hoped to enlarge the environment of the adult out-baclc, so it is hoped to bring to the youngsters the music, the storytelling and other features of well-equipped city schools. Already one of tlie broadcasting companies has offered to make its studio and wireless plant available twice a week for school purposes. At far away Bourke, 400 miles west of Sydney, during the recent tests the pupils listened by means of wireless to an address by the Director of Education (Mr S. H. Smith), who at one time was the head master of their own school.