PREPARATORY SCHOOLS.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 July 1925, Page 10

PREPARATORY SCHOOLS.

MAKING INSTITUTIONS PAY. ! MEETING OF PARENTS. A meeting of parents of children attending the preparatory departments of the New Plymouth Girls’ and Boys' High Schools was held at New Plymouth yesterday to discuss ways and means of making the departments pay, which they must do if they are to continue in existence. After the chairman of the board (Mr. H. R. Billing) and the headmaster of the boys’ school (Mr. W. H. Moyes) had made ‘the position clear, several parents expressed their views on the matter, the' meeting unanimously expressing itself agreeable to a raising 01 the fees, and a mimber of the parents agreed to do their best to persuade other people to ‘ send their children to the schools in order to raise the attendances. The position, as explained by Mr. Billing and Mr. Moyes, was fully set out in an article in last Saturday’s issue of the Daily News. Briefly, it is that under Government regulations preparatory schools must be self-supporting, and owing to the drop in the number of pupils at the boys’ school and an insufficient number at the girls’ school the board can see no remedy for. the position unless the staffs of the schools are reduced, the rolls increased, pr the teachers’ salaries' adjusted.About twenty parents attended .the meeting yesterday, and. after explanations and discussions as indicated above they expressed- their intention of doing what they could-to- increase the ■ roll nuinbers, and voiced their willingness to pay increased fees. A sum of 10s a term increase was suggested as. sufficient to meet the present needs..