Year of Progress

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 541, 19 December 1928, Page 10

Year of Progress

School Children Get Better Chance

THE primary schools throughout the Auckland, education district close to-day upon a year of steady progress in the inarch toward scholastic distinction. The province has widened the scope of its educational facilities, and the introduction to the system of several new features has enhanced the opportunities of children whose only life-equipment is a primary-school training. The new syllabus is expected to produce beneficial results.

JT'EW of the children who to-day pack their books and bid their teachers a gay farewell realise fully that they are leaving behind them what is probably the most influential period in their careers. The majority of them will not go on to secondary schools, but will start life armed only with the foundation of knowledge which has been imparted to them during their progress through the primers and the higher standards. The drift northward which is shown clearly by the census figures has reflected itself largely in the primary ire )re 7ft Hi rlt Hi ri? 7%: rre

would afford opportunity of catching up with the heavy demand. The expansion policy of the board, which progresses hand in hand with its system of consolidation in the country districts, is bringing within reach of the suburban and rural children the best preparatory training which it is possible to secure under the New Zealand educational system. In many places, the district high school operates in conjunction with the primary department, and courses are taken up to matriculation standard. In other areas, small schools —about 15 in number —have been abolished, and the pupils centralised in one large institution, to wtfich they travel by the department’s special motor transport. The centralisation of country schools is declared by Mr. Burns to be a proven success. In cases where the change has been made —a change which depends entirely upon the committees in the districts concerned—no movement toward re-ejtablishing the old method had been contemplated. The New Year holds much work for the Education Board. The overcrowding at Otahuhu, Point Chevalier, and some of the other suburbs, is becoming acute, and classroom additions are urgently required. In acUfition to the normal growth, the railway workshops at Otahuhu are bringing many potential school pupils, and the buildings have to be proceeded with very shortly. Additions to Milford and Avondale are among the first upon the extensions list. SUBURBS SETTLE FAST The rapid settlement of the Auckland suburbs has diverted the children from the city schools to the outer localities, and during the past couple of years two city buildings—Nelson Street and Newton East —have been closed on this account. The industrialisation of the closer suburbs, too, has driven residents further outward. This drift to Suburbia has been checked temporarily by the transport problem, but the restoration of public confidence in the subdivision of new settlements is likely to be established when the new transport board begins to operate in the New Year. Everywhere there is progress In education. The junior high school movement, established first at Kowhai, is running jointly with other modified schemes for bridging the gap between the primary and secondary schools, while an extensive scheme, costing something like £1,000,000 to introduce, was handed by the Reform Government to the ’new United Administration, with the Ministerial change, and probably will be tried out next year. The open-air school controversy continues heatedly in some districts. In Auckland, a semi-open-air building is being used, which is considered by the Board chairman to be the equivalent of the open-air structure, though the full open-air school Is to be given a trial In the coming year at Avondale South.

school attendance, and the increase in roll numbers in the Auckland area has been greater proportionately than in other districts in New Zealand. All this has been an embarrassment to the board in securing mofe accommodation, and a tax upon the educational appropriation of the Government; but, in the main, the requirements have been met with facility, and the steady advancement of the system was not checked. The Auckland Education Board now controls 762 primary schools, with a roll call approximating 68,000 children. The annual cost of administration is £BOO,OOO. The yearly increase in school pupils throughout the board’s district has been in the vicinity of 1,000, but last year, on account of an inexplicable lull in the general population advance, the increase dropped to 450. This steadying up in the school increase is welcomed by the chairman of the Auckland Education Board, Mr. A. Burns, who says that during the past few years Auckland has been having its full share of development, and the education authorities were fully occupied in coping with its requirements. Auckland, in fact, had been experiencing a population boom, but now a lull had occurred which

With this progress in education, many of the old schools have had to be remodelled. Some of them have yet to be taken in hand, but they can he treated only as the money flows from the Treasury.