TEACHERSAND UNIVERSITY

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28447, 29 November 1957, Page 16

TEACHERSAND UNIVERSITY

Institute Seeks Close Bond

The New Zealand Education Institute believes that teachers’ colleges should be situated handy to universities, according to a leading article in its journal “National Education.” “There is still a tendency among some educational authorities, though not in the Education Department, to regard the primary school teacher as sufficiently qualified with a C certificate (the qualification with which they leave teachers’ college after two years in the ordinary course) and to fail to realise the need to provide the student teacher with convenient facilities to improve his qualifications.” the article says. A recent example was the proposal of the Wellington Education Board to use its training college at Kelburn for post-pri-mary teachers, “so that they can be near the university and to shift the primary students to a college farther afield,” the article says. In contrast there was the proposal of the Victoria University Council that teacher training should be part of the university curriculum to raise the level of academic and professional qualifications, stimulate intellectual interests, and provide more opportunities for education research. The leading article in “National Education” appeared before the recent announcement that another teachers’ college will be established at Hamilton. All these matters impinge on representations made to the annual meeting of the Senate of the University of New Zealand in Christchurch three months ago. The teachers’ organisations asked the Senate to set up a department of extra-mural studies for the benefit of teachers, who (because of appointments remote from university centres) had difficulty in completing degrees. The University of South Auckland Society asked for the establishment of a university and teachers’ college at Hamilton. The Senate decided to postpone new regulations preventing extra-mural study for certain subjects and agreed to investigate the other proposals.