CHILDREN ON STRIKE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 690, 15 June 1929, Page 27

CHILDREN ON STRIKE

PARENTS OBJECT TO NEW SCHOOL HAVE TO WALK FURTHER The parents of 100 school children on the new council estate at Mitcham in England started a strike recently against the transference of their children from Rowan Road School to a new elementary school—Sherwood Park School —a mile and a-half away. They sent their children in the morning as usual to Rowan Road School. When the teachers told the children that they would have to go to the new school, they went home, according to their parents’ instructions. Mr. F. C. Blissett, secretary of the Longthornton Park Ratepayers’ Association, said: “This is the outcome of the protest meeting held last evening, when the parents of these children pledged themselves not to transfer their children to the new school. About 100 children are now on strike. “We object to taking our children from a school three minutes from their homes and sending them to another school 20 minutes away. We have been on this estate for two years, and our children have paddled through the mud to school. “Now, when roads are made, so that they can get to school in comfort, they have to walk all through the mud again to another school a mile and a-half away. We are determined to test the issue.” On behalf of the educational authority it is stated that the new school is a temporary measure to relieve the ; overcrowding of the other schools. ; It is claimed that for a consideri able time there have been from 150 |to 200 children roaming about the district who have been unable to rei ceive any education at all.

j Children who have hitherto atj tended Rowan Road School are now j being automatically transferred, and j many others whose parents have been ! paying to send them to a private I school are now able to receive ele- ! mentary education for the first time ! in their own district.