A CROWDED SCHOOL

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2610, 4 November 1915, Page 2

A CROWDED SCHOOL

, 9 .. UNDESIRABLE CONDITION. 1 i The Wellington Education Board lias j under its consideration a proposal to ! enlarge the infant school at Clyde J Quay, which is said to be very urgently 5 needed. 'For over twenty years this -j school has in nowise been altered or enlarged, though the population in tho j locality has increased enormously. In this .particular infant school there are : only three rooms, in which 280 children arc assembled. Such are the straits that' the largest of the rooms has to 1 be divided into three in order to classify the children, and that is effected only by the use of blackboards, to that ! tho spectacle may bo seen any day of three classes of little boys anij girls " assembled in one room learning different lessons. Being in the centre of a large residential area the Clyde Quay School is always full. During tho present year between 50 and 00 children have 'had to be refused admittance oil the score that there is no room for them. This crowded state has not been maintained in the majority of the city schools, as with the gradual spread of business premises, the one-time'residen-tial area has been encroached lipon, and tho number of children to be accommodated with school-room has' eased slightly.

This is clcarly shown in the following table, which gives 'the average attend"' ances at the chief city schools ten years ago (1005). alongside the attendances for the September quarter of the current year (the last figures available);— , ■ Average . attendance. 1905 1915 Thorndon (Normal)' 406 .382 Terrace : 591 569 Te Aro and Mitchelltown : i(combined) ;... 843 768 Mt. Cook Boys' 412 341 Mt. Cook Girls' 370 ' 271" Mt. Cook Infants' ......... 375 318 Newtown 831 797 Clyde Quay ............ 670 659 Under these circumstances the building of new schools in prospering suburbs appears to be easier of achievement than getting improvements o!r extensions made .to a long established school. Tile gradual decline in the attendances _of 'the centrallj' situated schools coincides with that policy, but in the case of Clyde Quay, which absorbs the childf-en from the whole of the slopes of Mount Victoria, siieli an eastment is hardly to be anticipated. In 'the 'meantime, the infant school is certainly in need of enlargement— work which might easily be carried.out during the Christmas holidays.