YOUNG TEACHERS.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18725, 23 June 1926, Page 12

YOUNG TEACHERS.

SENT FROM NORTH FOR TRAINING. A WELLINGTON COMPLAINT. (SrECIAI. TO THE PRESS.) WELLINGTON, June. 22. Complaints have been made by a member of . the Victoria College Council that the Education Department has over-built its accommodation for teachers iu training in Canterbury and Utugo, ami mat now large numbers ot students in the Wellington district who would-naturally go to Victoria Colwero being tent down south uud their lecture lees lost to Wellington College. Enquiries at the Department show that there are close on ltK) students liom the Wellington district in training in Canterbury and Otago, and that the cost of these students to the Department in fees and travelling expenses would be m tho region ot £2O per Year. • Interviewed on the point, Dr. karsden, Assistant Director of Education, said that Otago especially had a long record of successful training of teachers, and stood very higb iu the Dominion. There was now room at both Canterbury and Otago Training Colleges, but he did not agree that the accommodation at either of these places had been overbuilt. Until recently there had been 110 additions at Otago for the past ten years. Some 91 students from Wellington University district were now at Canterbury and Otago. Canterbury had one from Wangnnui, three from Hawke's Bay, and 27 from Nelson. Otago had 30 from Hawke's Bay, and 30 from Taranaki, while it was anticipated that 81 would go down from Hawke's _ Bay next year. The Department paid the fares of these students from Wellington and back at specified periods during the year. The boarding allowance given to students was paid in any case, no matter where they went, and it made no difference to them whether they trained at Wellington or at Dunedin. The quota for the southern districts had been reduced; they had been turnins; out more teachers than they needed' and with the reduction there had been made room for surplus students from the north. The northern colleges were overcrowded, and those sent away had brought up the southern totals to their capacity, and had relieved the northern staffs, which had been working at top pressure. The small cost of'transfer was quite balanced by these factors. Further, the training colleges were the Department's own schools, and the staffs had to be paid in any ease. There would ha ail alteration in arrangements once the recommendations of tho University Commission were being carried- • out, added Dr. Marsden. It was the De-: partinent's intention to huild a new tihining college near the site selected for-tho Agricultural College, though whether this would be the principal training college was a policy matter, on which ho was not able to make a statement.