"Challenge," a PBH tutoring program for bright seventh and eighth graders from lower socio-economic areas of Cambridge, will expand nearly four-fold this semester, Elisha M. Gray '66, director of the project, announced yesterday.

Forty volunteers will be recruited to tutor applicants who were not included when PBH set up the original pilot project in September, Gray said.

Eight Harvard and Radcliffe students currently spend about six hours a week teaching small classes in mathematics, English, and current events to 11 boys from Houghton, Webster, and Harrington schools. PBH supplies $30 per student for books, magazine subscriptions, and transportation costs. The Britannica Co. donated five $20 teaching machines to the project.

New Phase Different

The addition to the "Challenge" project will be modified because PBH cannot afford more money for materials, according to Joseph N. P. Ozawa Jr. '67, coordinator of the program. The new volunteers will be asked to tutor boys individually once a week, Ozawa said, with each pair free to determine a course of study.

PBH's "Challenge" committee included a request for $500 of anti-poverty funds in Cambridge's application to the Office for Economic Opportunity earlier this year. The money would be used to purchase books, a tape recorder, and musical equipment, and to hire professional advisors.

The project is designed to encourage the boys to continue their present education and to pursue higher education.