VOLUNTEERS FOR AIR FORCE

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23001, 22 April 1940, Page 7

VOLUNTEERS FOR AIR FORCE

SPECIAL CLASSES NOW FORMED ) EDUCATIONAL STANDARD 750 MEN UNDERGOING INSTRUCTION fXHE PRESS Special Service.] DUNEDIN,' April 19. Fuller details of earlier statements regarding the education of airmen pilots, air observers, and air gunners were given by the Minister for Defence (the Hon.-F. Jones) in a statement. About 750 men, all selected as airmen pilots or air observers, the Minister said, were at present-undergoing instruction either in one of the 20 classes already in 'operation in various towns of the Dominion, or by correspondence from Air Force headquarters. These men were in two groups. No. 1 short course and No. 1 long course. Short course trainees were all men who had reached the necessary educational standard some five or six years ago, but required a short refresher course. The long course men were never at any stage up to the required Air Force standard for pilots or observers, and were being given a course of some five months in order that this standard might be attained. Short course trainees would complete their preliminary mathematical training in May, arid long course trainees at the end of Jurie. At the end of each period the men would be tested to determine their standard, and to ascertain whether the initial classification of pilot or observer could be sustained. Instructors would, however, be asked for a recommendation in cases in which a man failed to'reach the necessary standard, and an extended course would be given if it were felt that an extended course would enable the man to qualify himself educationally for the position for which he had been originally chosen. Air Gunners Those men going in as air gunners constituted another problem which had to be met. It was naturally not necessary for those men to have the same educational qualifications as those men selected as pilots or observers, for they would never at any time be required to navigate. Up to the present no instruction had been given by the Air Force to those men before their entry into a ground training school. He himself, however, had been so well satisfied with the success of the present educational arrangements that he had for some time felt the advisability of drafting to preliminary classes in mathematics and science all men who were to enter the ground training school at Levin, not only those entering as airmen pilots and air observers, but also those entering as air gunners. The Cabinet had now decided, the Minister said, that this preliminary instruction was to be given in all cases to men selected for the aircrew section of the Air Force, and the necessary arrangements were at present being made by the Air Department. It would not, of course, be necessary to bring gunners to the same standard as that required' for pilots and observers. and the preliminary course to be followed by them would be a modification of that being followed by those men selected as airmen pilots or air observers. As far as possible gunners would be drafted into a separate cla?s. Teachers’ Co-operation In order to amplify educational arrangenients at * headquarters, a total staff of 11. including seyeri education officers, was handling this side of the work, and with the increased numbers to be trained under the new scheme, increased staffing would, of course, be necessary. When those men receiving instruction in the present No. 1 short and No. 1 long courses completed their educational training others would take their places. It would appear that in the No. 2 short and long courses 700 men would require instruction in classes, and some 500 by correspondence. Those numbers were by no means final, as Wellington applicants had still to be interviewed by the selection committee in , its second tour of the Dominion. _ ■ , , • . The Minister said that a certain number of applications were being received for the air-crew; section from men who had not conJpleted their primary school education. Those applications could not be entertained, as such men could not, in the limited time available, be brought up to the standard required by the Air Force. The Minister also said that he did not anticipate the slightest difficulty in obtaining a sufficient number of instructors. either for evening classes or for correspondence work. School teachers were co-operating wonderfully well with the Air Force in this lustructional scheme, and dozens of offers ol assistance had already been received from teachers other than those wno were helping at present.