CONSOLIDATED SCHOOLS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19063, 27 July 1927, Page 7

CONSOLIDATED SCHOOLS.

The Oxford School Committee has sent us the following statement; —. "In the report of the speech of the Minister for Education at Hawarden occur the words, 'at Pio Pio. . • there was a consolidated school. . . . There was another at Oxford, and the people there would not go back to the old system.' Anyone reading the above report might be excused if he or she came to the conclusion that the people of Oxford were quite satisfied with 'consolidation' as it exists at when actually the greatest dissatisfaction exists. The people of Oxford, like all reasonable people, are convinced that consolidation is the only possible solution of the rural education problem, provided that proper precautions a fe taken for the safety and health of the children. The term 'consolidated' 1S properly only applied to schools where the buildings, staffing, etc., are absolutely up-to-date. The term could be applied to Hawarden, but by no stretch of the imagination could it be applied to the buildings and old site at Oxford. We are convinced that no rural district ought to consent to consolidation until they have a definite promise of a complete up-to-date school."