PORTABLE SCHOOLS.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 September 1921, Page 4

PORTABLE SCHOOLS.

The latest method evolved by the Minister of Education for overcoming the serious difficulty connected with crowded schools is admittedly only a temporary expedient, but it bids fair to be a costly palliative. It certainly does not exhibit that resourcefulness and administrative ability which Mr. Parr appeared to possess when he first took over the portfolio of Education, and in the interests of the teachers and children Cabinet might well decline to grant the funds required by the Minister for portable schools. The Defence Department had anything but an enviable experience in providing hutments at the training camps during the war period, and now the Minister of Education desires to fall into the same error. Why waste valuable money in such makeshifts? The only sensible way is to face the position by totalling up the amount required for absolutely necessary enlargements and new schools, and then raise a loan so as to carry out the work as it should be carried out. This tinkering process which the Minister favors is economically unsound, besides being unbusinesslike. It is equivalent to doing the work twice over, and therefore an example of unjustifiable waste. Mr. Parr’s scheme may provide the necessary

additional accommodation temporarily, but it will still involve the permanent structures being erected. His statement that he hopes by this means to make £8720 do duty for work costing £52,299 is utterly misleading. In all probability £lO,OOO will be the cost of erecting these so-called portable schools, followed by the process of taking them down, and, presumably, erecting them elsewhere. Such a hand-to-moutn policy stands self-condemned. New Zealand is not so destitute of credit that it cannot afford proper school buildings, but has to resort to such an expedient as the Minister proposes.