AIRMEN STUDENTS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 1, 2 January 1945, Page 2

AIRMEN STUDENTS

TUITION IN TROPICS

EDUCATIONAL SERVICES R N Z.A.F. Official News Service GUADALCANAR, Dec. 23. The moving forward of New Zealand's new Air Task Force has demonstrated something new in the way of off-duty facilities for servicemen. This has comprised the extension of the R.N.Z.A.F. educational services to more forward areas. As the several groups which go to make up the task force jockey into position to strike at the Japanese from new angles, education officers have accompanied them in their island-hopping advance and settled down in the new areas to continue a service which has probably done more for the morale of the Royal New Zealand Air Force in the Pacific than any other organisation. The duties of these education officers do not end with the organisation of study courses. They are also responsible for library facilities and spare time entertainments generally. The following extract from No. 1 (Islands) Group instructions to education officers attached to forward units gives some idea of the first steps taken to establish the educational scheme as a going concern:

". . . They (education officers) must be prepared to work for long hours under trying conditions. The first necessity for the education officer will be a building, and for this purpose the National Patriotic Fund Board is supplying two tarpaulins to each education officer. The education officer himself will be responsible for having the framework erected. Libraries must be established immediately and L-mall areas marked out for various For this purpose, enthusiastic unit personnel can be co-opted. Above all, the educational side must function immediately. . . ." Thousand Men on Courses On the strictly educational side, approximately 1000 airmen are taking study courses, ranging from farm book-keeping to university degree subjects. A wide variety of courses is available. Classes in some subjects are conducted by experts on station, or, if the would-be students prefer it, courses can be arranged with organisations in New Zealand. In addition, men with necessary qualifications can be enrolled as extra-mural students with any of the New Zealand university colleges. Over 130 officers and airmen in the Pacific' sat for university degree examinations this year. As far as possible, assignments in study courses are marked on the spot, with the object of keeping up enthusiasm. Applications for courses are made to Guadalcanal-, where large stocks of courses are held. This arrangement does away with the time-lag which would occur were applications made to New Zealand.

A point worth noting in connection with study courses is that even with all that is done to assist him the airman student faces two difficulties in the Pacific—the pressure of his official duties and the climate. Hours worked by the average airman are long and often broken, and, in addition, the heat, evsn at night, makes concentration a real effort. Bearing in mind these difficulties, the results achieved are considered more than satisfactory. Sports and Entertainment In considering how he is to spend his evening, an airman's . first thought is invariably to find out whether there is a picture show on or not. In all the larger camps, movies are shown nightly, and the distribution of projectors and arrangement of film circuits has now progressed to the stage where every airman in the Pacific, no matter where he is stationed, can see at least four picture programmes a week. The organising of these shows is a job which falls to the lot of- the education officer.

The organisation of libraries is another responsibility. Light reading matter, with a good proportion of the better-class fiction, and books of the day are received from the Country Library Service through the A.E.W.S. Reference libraries are now being built up at Base Depot, New Hebrides, and at Guadalcanal' to deal with requests for books on special subjects. The question of text books for university students has been solved by a hire agreement, wherebv the books are made available on lure at 20 per cent of their cost price. Sporting activities also come under the education officer. The bare necessities in the way of sporting equipment issued include the necessary gear for volley ball, basketball, cricket, boxing, tenniquoits and badminton, and—to such an extent has the organisation developed—immediate trophies for prizes are included in the initial issue. This equipment is usually quickly added to, and in a very short time the variety of sporting activities being carried on is nothing short of astonishing. Education officers are usually found to be instructing in one or several sports or to have made arrangements for expert instruction. In addition, competitions are arranged and inter-station and often inter-service matches played. Very Popular Provision

Other tasks on the entertainment schedule include the organising of local concerts, orchestras, societies and clubs of all descriptions and arranging for lectures to be given on popular subjects. A service run by education officers on most stations is a short summary of world news each evening over the loud-speaker system before the picture show commences. This is a very popular provision. Another broadcasting activity is the weekly New Zealand hour over the American "mosquito network," the Solomons radio broadcasting service. Such are some of the tasks undertaken by R.N.Z.A.F. education officers in the Pacific. It would be impossible to give the full list in one article, as it would have to include such multitudinous and unexpected undertakings as a large-scale model piggery, the "acquiring" of a golf course, the organisation of race meetings, the collection and classification of butterflies and even such monumental undertakings as a survey of island timbers for the New Zealand Forestry Department. Each education officer is a picked man. He is not chosen solely for his scholastic ability, but for his personality, his all-round general knowledge and his organising talent. The work which has been accomplished by these men in the Pacific has proved the value of their appointments many times over.