The CEO of the Correspondence School, now called Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu tried to give justification for the name change.

Mr Mike Hollings in stating that the school 'for a small number of primary school children” should have researched the school's history a little further.

He would have found by the early 1930s the school was the largest in the country, with a full secondary department.

And it was using the latest technologies with its programmes of daily radio broadcasts.
It also had visiting specialists and teachers who gave face-to-face visits to pupils.

Social upheavals in the last few decades have caused various schools to expel disruptive and unco-operative students for their behaviour etc.

And the Ministry of Education foolishly loaded the Correspondence School with problem people to teach.

The staff of the school, to their credit, tackled the extra load.

However, the fact many of these problem people were Maori doesn't justify removing a name that belongs to our country's history.

I repeat my request that, in the interest of our history and heritage, the name Correspondence School be restored.

In conclusion, we'd all resent it if the name ‘Anzac' was replaced because the army now uses automatic weapons and armoured vehicles, in place of single-shot rifles and mules.

J Mills, Mount Maunganui.