Don't Let Them Close Your School

Minutes of the meeting held in Malupit Community School on Wednesday 14th March at 8:00 pm. Mr. Pomat, a Malupit shop owner, called the meeting to find out the views of the community on local government plans to close the Malupit Community School at the end of the present school year. Mr. Pomat acted as chairman of the meeting. He introduced Mr. L. Karazin, from the Planning Office of the Raval Education Department. Mr. Karazin pointed out that there were now only fifty-three children at Malupit Community School. This was considered to be too high a number for the forming of two classes and the employment of two teachers. Mrs. Luvako, who had taught at the school for the past twenty-two years, would be retiring from the teaching service in July. The Planning Office wished to take this opportunity to close the school, because it is expensive to run, and to move the children to two bigger schools in Raval, six miles away. Mrs. Jarvis, the mother of an eight-year-old boy at Malupit, asked what would happen about transport to Raval. Mr. Karazin replied that the children would travel by bus. This would be provided by the Raval Transport Department, and it would take Malupit children to and from school free of charge. Another parent, Mr. W. Riley, expressed the fear of many parents that closing the local school would mean that the children of Malupit would not grow up with the same sense of community as in the past. They would feel lost in the much larger schools in Raval. Mr. Karazin replied that the Raval schools were not very large, and that, in any case the children would have to go to Raval later on for education at high-school level. The chairman voiced the view of the meeting when he said that there was a good reason to believe that there would soon be more young children living in Malupit. It would be foolish, he said, to close the school, and then to find that there were more than enough local children to form two classes and employ two teachers. A final point was made by Mr. Colmar, a retired business man, that without Malupit Community School, there would be nowhere big enough for local clubs and organizations to hold their meetings. Mr. Karazin promised that he would bring these points to the attention of the Education Department. Mr. Pomat brought the meeting to a close shortly after 9 o'clock.