LOAN TO PAY BOARD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 140, 15 June 1932, Page 8

LOAN TO PAY BOARD.

TEACHERS UNDER TRAINING.

STUDENTS AWAY FROM HOME.

EDUCATION BOARDS' PROTEST.

A protest against the Government's proposal to regard the lodging allowance made to training college students as a loan was received by the Auckland Education Board from the Otago Education Board at its meeting this morning. The local hoard expressed sympathy with students who would be so penalised and agreed to support the protest. The Otago Board wrote that under the proposed new scale all students were to receive a bursary of £20, and students livin<r away from home might obtain a loan°of £30. It was likely that all Otago students would require the loan At the end of their two years' course outside students would leave college with the future mortgaged to the extent of £00, while others living in the college centres would be free from that burden. The Otago board suggested that every board in the Dominion should point out to the Minister the unfairness of the proposal, which would unduly favour the minority of students who were fortunate enough to live in one of the college centres.

"It seems that this is another injustice to the country student, and I think we might support Otago," commented the chairman, Mr. A. Burns. "Should Be Encouraged." Mr. T. U. Wells said that he thought h was essential that all students should be treated alike. There was no doubt that next year students in Auckland and Christchurch would be at a very distinct advantage in the future. The making of the lodging allowance a loan would put a tax on the country parent. It was important that there should be a steday stream of students from the cotintry, and they should be encouraged.

Mr. Burns: I think the £30 should be a grant and not a loan.

Mr. S. B. Sims thought that the parents of Auckland and. Christchurch students would have to pay £30 a year to keep their children. He did not think that there would be any great hardship on the parents of other students Mr. G. E. Spooner: It eeenis to be that the proposal will inflict a great hardship on outside students.

The board decided to support the Otago Board's protest.

A memorandum from the Education Department gave formal notification of the decision to close the Wellington and Dunedin training colleges at the end of the present year. The Department asked for the board's co-operation in securing appointments for lecturers who would lose their positions through the closing of the colleges. The board was requested not to fill any vacancies for which training college lecturers might be regarded as suitable applicants. Closing of Training Colleges. The Otago Board forwarded a copy of a' lengthy statement made by its chairman, Mr. J. M. Wallace, on the subject of the closing of the Otago and Wellington colleges. "The Minister has not mentioned a factor that was not

taken into consideration when the board submitted its original statement in February," read the statement. "That statement contained most substantial reasons against the proposal to close the two colleges. I say emphatically that economy is not the principal reason for the closing of the colleges. In the board's letter definite figures were furnished showing that the Dunedin college could be efficiently carried on next year at a total cost of £1940, a saving of £3075 over the current year. The Minister now estimates a saving of £10,000 by closing the two colleges. If the Otago Board can carry on the Dunedin college next year at an expenditure of £1940, Wellington should be able to do the same, and the utmost saving therefore through closing the two colleges cannot be more than £3880. With the cost of lodging allowance and travelling expenses, the cost of running one college will be greater than two! The position at present is that the Otago Board has submitted a definite scheme for training the remaining students in the four colleges next year as efficiently and as economically as it could be done in two, and no attempt has been made to refute the board's figures and recommendations."

"Against Weight of Evidence." "It seems to me that financial consideration is not the main reason for the Government's decision," continued Mr. Wallace's statement. "It seems that this is a policy that the Director of Education has had in view for a °reat many years, and that, taking advantage of the financial position, he has prevailed upon the Minister to adopt it. I hesitate to state one other reason for the Government making a decision so definitely against the weight of evidence, but it has been said that the Canterbury and Auckland representation on the Cabinet was too strong. I firmly believe that the director could not persuade the Minister to agree to the proposal to close the Dunedin and Wellington Colleges until he was able to justify it on financial grounds. It may be, however, that the search for a method was made after Cabinet's decision in order to give some semblance of justification. Hence the proposal now put forward that the lodging allowance be regarded as a loan. "The question of whether it was a fair thing to students to make the lodging allowance a loan was a secondary consideration to the fact that it provided the means to justify a decision that was to be come to. The refund of the loan will begin when students receive permanent appointments, and when will that be? The first in about 1935 and others up to 1938. And the Government is proposing to* close two colleges in order to save money in 1933! It was not a refund the Government was after, so much as a method of cutting the ground from under the feet of those who so far have furnished an unassailable argument against the proposal to close the colleges." The statement was received.