ARMY EDUCATION

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 199, 24 August 1942, Page 4

ARMY EDUCATION

TO OVERCOME BOREDOM

VOCATIONAL, TRAINING NEED

(0.C.) WELLINGTON, this day. "The young men now entering camp who have not yet had an opportunity to qualify for any trade or profession cannot see anything ahead of them, or a future for'themselves after the war. They are losing hope and their ambitions are being replaced by boredom and a feeling of futility and frustration," said the director of the Wellihgton Technical College, Mr. R. G. Ridling in summing up the need for a oi army education. Without it, h j Id, the transition from soldier to c "!ian would be an extremely difficult national problem. Some scheme such as was adopted in Britain within a few months of the outbreak of war and was now in operation in other countries of the British Commonwealth was considered necessary to provide what he termed an anchcr for the hopes of the men in camp. "When I ask old pupils what they are doing in camp, they generally reply: 'The same old thing.' They show all the signs of . boredom," he commented. For the successful operation of a system of army education it should *be an integral part of army training, it would have to be vocational, and it should also have a social aspect, Mr. Ridling saidThe vocational training he considered necessary was the same as that given at night classes in technical colleges throughout the Dominion.