CONSOLIDATED SCHOOLS.

Waikato Times, Volume 98, Issue 15320, 22 August 1923, Page 4

CONSOLIDATED SCHOOLS.

An address recently delivered at Te Awamutu by Mr H. A. Parlunson had as its object the spread of information regarding the policy of consolidation of schools, a change of system which it is hoped to initiate shortly in accordance with an announcement made over a year ago by Hon. G. J. Parr, Minister of Education. As knowledge of what is proposed becomes more widely diffused there should be no great need for the Minister to fear the opposition of back-block settlers if the case is presented to them in the proper light. The pride that settlers now have in “ their little school” can quite easily be * transferred to their big school, and will be as soon as they have it and realise what the change means to their children. But it is essential that the arrangements made for transport should be satisfactory to the Boards, and beyond all question reassuring to the parents. In America motor transport is cheap, and the carriage of children to and from their homes has not jeopardised the movement financially. Here transport is not cheap but very dear, and it will not be easy to make the necessary arrangements without adding considerably to the Board’s financial anxieties. Though there will be a saving in buildings and land, this will not be so big as some suppose, and it may be suggested that the most important task for Mr Parr will be to convince the community that the greater efficiency assured under consolidation will demand no impossible financial burdens. If he is able to show that children can be conveyed safely and comfortably to and from the new schools, and that the total cost -of transport, specialised staff, and buildings will not be greater than under the present system, that will he the best possible propaganda against habits of conservatism and local obstruction. For there can be no doubt in anyone’s mind of Hie educational advantages of consolidated schools —or, to put the case in the most emphatic way, of the educational disadvantages of schools with a single, low-paid, indifferently qualified teacher. To believe that parents would insist on that kind -of instruction if something better were available i's a libel on them, and should be dismissed at once from Ihe Minister’s mind. One of the chief obstacles io back-blocks settlement has always been the natural and creditable reluctance of parents to move beyond the reach of good schools. Once they understand that consolidation meets Hint difficulty Ilic chief terror of "roughing it” will vanish. In place of pro-supposing an insurmountable objection to consolidation of schools the Education Department lias reasonable grounds for assuming that parents, when convinced

of what is best for the children, will be ready and anxious to fall in with any plan to achieve that object.