i EDUCATION PLANS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 November 1939, Page 5

i EDUCATION PLANS

MEETING WAR CONDITIONS IN BRITAIN PROVISION FOR EVACUATED CHILDREN HEALTH AND OTHER SERVICES. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, November 16. In the House of Commons tonight Mr H. B. Lees-Smith (Labour) opened, the discussion of education problems in relation to evacuation. He said he welcomed the decision to reopen schools in certain vulnerable areas. Children in such areas would probably be safer in the schools than the streets or their own houses. He suggested the return of doctors and nurses, who should resume their ordinary tasks and stand by only for emergencies. He added that a War Office inquiry showed that among the 250.000 militiamen now mobilised there had been only three cases of crime sufficiently serious not to be dealt with by the commanding officers. This, said Mr Lees-Smith, was both a test and justification of modern British schools. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education. Mr Kenneth Lindsay. said that though education had experienced unexampled dislocation, the flexible, decentralised system was recovering and many children were benefiting by the changed conditions. In the country areas they were taller and stronger and better fed; they slept longer and were found easier to teach, and the average weight of some had increased by over three pounds. There were some 900,000 children in the evacuation areas, he said, and 1,700,000 in "neutral" and 2.500.000 in reception areas. They were not yet all at school. In the evacuation areas many schools had been commandeered, and in some adequate protection was not yet forthcoming. Adequate medical service was operating in the reception areas, a normal service in the neutral and a skeleton service in the evacuation areas, but this would be extended as the schools reopened. The Government had agreed to meet overhead charges in connection with the feeding arrangements, and it was expected under the scheme to provide a good meal for 4d. Mr Lindsay stated that 99 out of the 105 teachers' training colleges were now working, and the supply of teachers was being maintained. In conclusion, he said. "We must see that every child receives educational supervision as soon as possible, and that the school medical and dental services resume their attack on sickness and uncleanliness. The children must not suffer either from the enemy or lack of care at home."