Up until the 1930s and 1940s, pupils had to commute to larger towns and cities for secondary education from places that only had a primary school. For example, from rural Waikato students travelled from Matamata and further into Hamilton to attend Hamilton High School.

The NZR offered season tickets for primary and secondary school students from 1877, using funds paid for out of the Education budget, and from 1885 for students attending primary schools from a place lacking a local school. The Government of the day were keen to place secondary education "within the reach of the poorest man in the Colony" with an extension of the free passes in 1898 and 1909. School season passes increased from 8720 in 1899 to 29,705 in 1914–15, when one in seven primary and secondary students travelled by train. Some pupils reached home after dark in the winter and had to milk cows before and after school. Some children would spend up to six hours a day travelling. Boys and girls were usually segregated.