WEATHER AND SCHOOL ATTENDANCE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10035, 8 July 1910, Page 4

WEATHER AND SCHOOL ATTENDANCE.

A number of complaints have been made to Education Boards in New Zealand during the winter which , throw a good deal of light on the diminished attendance roll question. It is alleged by the parents that children, during lunch hour, are not permitted to eat their lunch within the sacred portals of the schoolroom, even when it is raining heavily. Some ancient rule, enforced with the regularity of the laws of the Medes ; and Persians, enacts that the pupils must go outside, while the teachers, | on the other hand, avail themselves of *he Elysian comfort of perfect shelter and warm fireside. The result of the "system" is that, on riny days, the children, after being huddled together in an exposed shed, frequently get their clothes damp, if not soaking, and are compelled to sit for the remainder of the school term in discomfort, with the certainty of at least soma of them catching cold. The parents, in great many instances, have recently ascertained the true state of affairs, and on we* days they purposely keep the pupils'at home on health grounds. Such a state of things, if existing, is a standing reproach to ihe Department, and should be in- J ■ quired into immediately by the Minister, in charge. The health of the rising generation is one of the most ; important concerns of a young nation, and if the schools are being used as a means of increasing the number of cases of lung trouble, as has been asserted, the matter is really too

serious for any delay on the part of the Ministerial head.