PRIMARY SCHOOLS

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3612, 12 March 1927, Page 2

PRIMARY SCHOOLS

FOUNDATION OF EDUCATION. NECESSITIES MUST COME FIRST. Auckland, March 10. “Whatever else goes, the primary schools must be attended to,” said the Minister of Education, the Hon. R. A. Wright, speaking to Otahuhu to-day. “There are in New Zealand a number of eases of two teachers instructing different classes in a room, and' that is educationally wrong.” The Minister said the reason for that lay in the fact that the. Department. had not been able to provide more room. “That position, however, must be met,” he said. “We must provide the additional accommodation required in the primary schools, which are the foundation of our education system. Necessities must 'come first.” The Minister said he had been taken to task in Wellington because he had said that a school assembly hall and gymnasium were luxuries. His remarks had been construed as an expression of opinion that he did not believe in these adjuncts to schools. That was not the case, but he was not prepared, as Minister, to find money for such things when primary schools and secondary schools too—were lacking essentials for their existence. “When T have found the money for the essentials,” the Minister added, “T will be ready to spend on the ‘frills.’ »