SCHODL CONDiTIONS ANGER PARENTS

Chronicle (Levin), 15 July 1946, Page 4

SCHODL CONDiTIONS ANGER PARENTS

^-Pfess AssocAatinn

ALL PROMISES AND NO ACTION

Bv leVearanh

WELLINGTON, July 14. The Taita sehool committee is in rebellion against the Education Department and to a less extent against the Wellington Education Board. , The committee has advised residents of Taita •• not to send their children to sehool until the sanitary conditions are improved. This advice operates as from toraorrow morning. Asked to explain the decision of the committee, the seeretary, Mr. B. Matthews, said: "Promises! Promisesl Promises! We have had nothing but promises of an improvement in conditiOlls for two years"! With the immense increase in housing, the amenities of this very old sehool have fallen further behind tlie bare minimum of requirements. As an instance, all washhand basins have to be boarded over because the drainage cannot get away the waste Water. There are only two cubicles for 159 boys in a tumbledown eonvenienee and there is no provision whatever for the masters. The Minister of Education months ago visited the sehool and said the conditions eomplained of would be remedied immediately. Repreffentatives of the Education Board • also visited the sehool a couple of months ago and gave the same as.mrance. The stage has now been reached when the septic tank will no longer handle the sewage and periodically it overflows threatening an epidemic. If a commercial concern had such insanilary conditions on its premises, the Mtate would proeeed against it immediately." j It was extraordinary, he added, that while the Government was campaigning ror better hygienic health conditions, it permitted such a disgraceful state of affairs at one of its own primary schools. The matter was a public scandal. Matter, s reached a head on Saturday morning when a meeting of parenfs was held at the sehool under the e.hairmanship of Mr. A. 8. Curtis, cliairman of the sehool committee. After a discunsion in which the existing conditions were condemned in strongest terms, the meeting passed a resolution urging the sehool cotnmittee to close tlie sehool immediately and not to reopen it until adequate. sanitary faeilities were commeneed for the 400 children and an assurance given that tlie work would he completed. The committee met afterward s and decided to accede in a measure to the. request of tlie meeling and to advise all pare.nts not to send their children to sehool until the. terms of the parents' ineeting had been met, cessation of attendance to begin tomorrow. "The sehool will open as usual on Monday, 5) said Mr. N. R. Seddon, cliairman of the Wellington Kducation Board, this evening. "The sehool committee has no legal right to close the sehool. ' ' He said that if parents ehoose to keep their children away they must accept responsibility for it. Eeferring to the general posilion of Taita sehool, Mr. Seddon said: "The board is not unaware of Ihe urgent need for increased eonvenienee accommodation at Taita sehool. Awailing authority are temporary plans for conveniences based on a ro 11. oi: 35') children. When we reeeive the authority of the Education Department, tenders will be called as a matter of urgeiicy. "