FRANKLEY ROAD SCHOOL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 235, 10 November 1909, Page 1

FRANKLEY ROAD SCHOOL.

THE UDIX'ATIUN DEL'AKT.UJiNT'K ALILTIiDI-:. Tlie chairman en' tliu Fianklcy Ko.nl School committee writes l<i lis us lolbnvs: "As a ver.v i nof number of your leaders nri' hiti-jr-'.iil in tin- ii|>|ilii-;i-tioli for a new school in M-rw the educational requirements of two important anil growing suburbs, l-'ianklcy Uo.nl ami Wcstoun, we think the facts 01 (lie case should lie maile public. Jin.' present school building was erected in lSTti, and is therefore thirty-three years old. I:i 1890—thirteen years ago—an addition was maile iu the shape of a lean-to. tlio height of the stud in this portion being Tft Oin. The total floor space of the whole building is 900 square feet, and according to the Department's estimate ten square feet is the minimum allowed for each child. The maximum accommodation therefore is for 110 scholars, in | this estimate, however, no allowance is I made for school furniture in the way of . desks tables, blackboards, etc., and if 101) feet were deducted for this, it is a very fair estimate to say the school has a miximum accommodation for 80 scholars. This very important fact must not be overlooked, that the whole of the standards are taught in one room. In that portion of the building used for the teaching of the lower standards, or infants, there is' a iloor space of 280 square feet, sufficient for 28 scholars. At the present time there are BO scholars packed in like sardines ill this narrow part of the building, or an average space of 4y.feet (inclusive of the desks) for each child, or l>/ 2 feet more than the prisoners were accommodated with in the Black Hole of Calcutta. [Note. —In the erection of new schools the Department now allows 12 square feet for each child]. Two assistants are trying to give instruction to those sixty children, and when we point out that one has only standing room and the other has to actually sit in the fireplace, vour readers can readily understand the disgracefully over-crowded state of this portion of the building. When the committee waited on the Board with their request for a new school, there was l a roll of 101 and on several occasions during the last month I there has been an attendance of 90, 1)4, and 90, and when it is pointed out that there are from 25 to 30 children of i school age in the district not attending school and over 50 under school age, there are plenty to take the places of the higher standard-. There are ten in Standard VI, and the committee esti-. mate there will be at least 25 new scholars after the Xmns holiday- 1 . The headmaster, llr. Winfield, is working under very great disadvantages, and when it is mentioned that during hot days, il is necessary for him to take some of the standards' into the school grounds under the trees in order to get a little relief from the shifty vitiated atmosphere of a crowded schoolroom, it can be readily understood, the general discipline of the school must suffer in consequence. The committee would also like to emplr.isi7.e the fact that the examination returns have suffered in consequence of the over-crowding, and although we have a most painstaking and efficient teaching staff, it is utterly impossible to expect good results. In brief, the present school building is too small, the timbers are rotten and beyond repair, the building is unhealthy and therefore unfitted for the teaching of vuung and 'growing children and should be immediately condemned.