Text books older than teachers

I write to raise the issue of the school atlas which is used by the children at Woy Woy Public School.

The books were first published in 1967 and the fourth reprint was in 1969 making these books some 36 years old.

This I find disgusting and unsatisfactory as some countries listed in the book no longer exist.

It has made study for all age groups impossible with the subject of Geography non-existent due to the inaccuracy of these books.

My son who is currently in Year 6 also shares one thesaurus between 25 students.

This also is unsatisfactory.

I recently watched a news item on the whole of Australia basing the HSC on the NSW system.

This may be impracticable as some students, due to lack of accurate texts, will still be back in the dark ages.

While the school recently was supplied with internet access, it frequently suffers problems with connection.

The year six class has just one computer for a total of 25 students.

My son's teacher frequently supplies his own computer in an attempt to access the internet.

Is the State Government prepared to fund private tutoring for those students who have been left behind due to some form of negligence, now that the problem has been identified?

In this age of modern technology, it is totally unacceptable for today's students to use texts that are older than many of their teachers.

Kerrie Stirling, Umina