LONDON SLUMS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20781, 16 July 1937, Page 16

LONDON SLUMS

BIG HOUSING SCHEMES London County Council is going ahead with its plans to wipe out the slums of the metropolis, and rehouse the people. Schemes involving more than half a million pounds and the rehousing of nearly 5,000 people were recently discussed. They include:— Eight more blocks of flats to accommodate 2,300 people at a cost of £271,300 at the Rockingham Estate, Southwark. One block of 35 dwellings for 150 people at a cost of £18.450 at Chaltonstreet. St. Pancras, and Five blocks of flats, and shops with flats over, at King's Mead Estate, Hackney, to house 1,380 people at a cost of £168.250. The council also discussed the acquisition, at a cost of £30,500. of an acre and a half of slum property in Seymour-street, St. Pancras. It is proposed to sell the property to the St. Pancras Hou e improvement Society, who will clear the area and build working-class dwellings for 550 people. Clearance of two areas in St. Leonard’s-street, Popular, at a cost of £2,400, and several areas in Bethnal Green, Emma-Street and Vyner-street, totalling 64 acres, is also proposed. Work for Boys Demand for Secondary Pupils Because of the improvement in trade, secondary school boys in England are passing out into business at an earlier age. At the moment there is little difliculty in placing boys who have had a good education. Two years ago 20 per cent, of the boys who were placed by the employment committee of headmasters were over 18 years of age. Now the proportion over 18 has dropped to 12 per cent. It may be taken for granted that the headmasters are not encouraging the boys to leave school any earlier, and this drop is due to the greater demand of the business world for lads of this type. There is also another reason for this drop in the age at which these lads go out into the world. Employers are getting rid of what is called the matriculation fetish. So long as they insisted on matriculation as a condition of employment in certain occupations, it was necessary for boys to remain at school to work (or cram) for the examination. Now they are learning that what is called the “school certificate” is the real "leaving” examination, and that matriculation is really an "entrance examination to a university. There is one local education authority entering on an experiment by which even the school certificate examination may prove unnecessary. They propose that on leaving school each pupil shall receive a certificate which will give a full statement of the subjects he has taken at school and an indication of the standard attained in each.