TOO MANY HELPERS AND TEACHERS Scheme May Collapse in Six Months

Front a Special Correspondent 'At the October meeting of tile Berkshire Education Committee ii Was revealed that at the end of September there were 29,215 pupil,on the elementary school rolls. Of
these 17,917 were Berkshire children, the remaining 11,298 being evacuees. Of these last 8,443 had been evacuated under the Government scheme and 2,855 were evacuated privately.
The General Purposes Sub-Committee, in a report on the evacuation scheme which was subsequently adopted, commented on the fact that the proportion of teachers and helpers to evacuees was ' unduly high," but at the same time pointed out that in several rural districts in the county there weee groups of evacuated children not under the supervision of teachers, and these had been the source of a good deal of trouble, particularly with regard to billets.
One rural district cf Berkshire had reported to the London County Council that they regarded 22 of their he/pers as redundant.
The chairman of the Committee stated, however, that when the discussions took place there woule be borne in mind the fact. that the organisation of the evacuated school classes had broken down, and that a more generous basis of staffing will have to be agreed to for the time being because of the Importance of social and out-of-school activities for the evacuated children.
Parents and Relations
In the meantime there m re becoming apparent in this area increasing signs that the scheme is not working smoothly. Householders are complaining that the parents of the evacuees are coming down at week-ends, often 'ith other relations, and expecting the householders to feed and sometimes accommodate them gratuitously. Childless ouples are beginning to chafe at !laving family ties suddenly forced upon them.
As the winter draws on the problem of out-of-school activitiee will grow _ore acute, arid this will add to the difficulties of the scheme.