IF SCHOOLS REMAIN CLOSED

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 449, 30 January 1948, Page 17

IF SCHOOLS REMAIN CLOSED

Lessons by Post, Talks on the Air

S the New Zealand schools, closed early in December because of infantile paralysis, will not re-open before Tuesday, February 10, the Education Department will maintain the schoo] curriculum as far as possible by distributing assignments of work which the pupils will do by correspondence. Teachers will play their part in’ the empty school buildings, sending out the work to the children, and the papers will be returned to school to be marked. Working in conjunction with committees set up by the Education Department, the NZBS Broadcasts to Schools Department has prepared a series of programmes for all ages and stages between the primers and Form IV. These broadcasts will not be lessons, for radio cannot replace school-teachers; but the programmes have been designed to provide interesting and stimulating matefial to extend and follow up the distributed assignments. Emergency Scheme The emergency broadcasting scheme will operate from Monday to Friday (inclusive). Programmes for the primers to Standard II. will be broadcast from 9.30 to 10.0 a.m.; for Standard III. to Form II. from 11.0 a.m. to 11.30 am.; Forms III. and IV. from 1.0 p.m. to 1.30 p.m., and Forms I, to IV. from 1.30 to 1.50 p.m. The infants’ section will open with nursery rhymes, rhythmic games and rhythm work followed by dramatised stories-"The Adventures of David and June at the Seaside" and "The Adventures of Brian and Lois in the Country."

These sessions will provide activity in the form of written work which the children will do as a follow-up. For Older Pupils Pupils from Standard III. to Form II. will receive by radio talks on music appreciation, current news, nature study, social study and literature, and two special quiz sessions to test their listening by questions arising from the broadcast talks and other sessions. Forms III. and IV, will be given a general introduction to mathematics, one session (for Form III. only) going under the title of Measurement and You. Both these forms will take social studies, science, literature and music appreciation. All children will be asked to keep diaries recording day-to-day activities; for the younger pupils the diary will be in the shape of a picture book. All the radio work has been arranged by the Broadcasts to Schools Department of the NZBS. Scripts have been written by experts-including several teachers-from various parts of New Zealand. The task has meant a good deal of research, for whereas normally the Department presents 45. programmes a month, the emergency sessions will involve 40 programmes a week. D. G. Ball (Education Department) is chairman of the committee dealing with the primary school broadcasts and E. Caradus (Education Department) is chairman of the post-primary broadcasts committee. Both committees consist of representatives of the Education Department} teachers, and the NZBS. The Correspondence School bi-weekly broadcasts, which are, of course, not affected by the outbreak, resume on Tuesday, February 3.