BOYS AT SCHOOL.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20107, 10 December 1930, Page 6

BOYS AT SCHOOL.

EFFECT OF DEPRESSION. FEW CASES OF HARDSHIP. Tli© effect of the current financial stringency on the roll numbers of secondary schools is not altogether adverse. With farmers who -would normally send their sons to board at a secondary school experiencing difficult times, it would not be surprising to find that many of them were unable to do so, but tlio experience of headmasters in Christchurcli is that the parents are prepared to make some personal sacrifice in order to secure for their children —especially for their sons —tlio advantages of a good secondary education. An Extra Year Denied. There certainly aro cases where boys from the country have been unable to go back to school for an extra year and the number of boarders in at least three City secondary schools shows a decrease this year. So far, however, the enrolments for next year show no appreciable decline, though it is, as yet, rather early to give any accurate forecast. One headmaster stated yesterday that, in liis school, the number of withdrawals this year and the number of enrolments for next wero quito normal. He had come across a few cases where boys were unable to return, but these were generally pupils who were destined for the farm and who had already Dccn at the school for some years. City Boys. Far from keeping City boys from attending school, the depression, with its consequent lack of openings m many spheres, has resulted in pupils carrying on at school for an extra year. "If there ar© no suitable openings offering and their parents aro able to support them, wo always advise the boys to return," remarked Mr 0». J. Lancaster, headmaster of tho Boys' High School, yesterday. Reflection of Birth-Bate. Mr Lancaster also drew attention to the fact that tho low birtli-rato of tho war years was now affecting attendances at secondary schools. In soveral State secondary schools throughout New Zealand this had been noticed. The children who wero born in tho war years were those now entering the secondary schools and tho low birth-rate of twelve and fourteen years ago meant that there wero now fewer children of secondary ago. Tho decrease was not great, but it was sufficiently marked to merit notice.