Teachers’ Training College To Be Built At Hamilton

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28776, 23 December 1958, Page 12

Teachers’ Training College To Be Built At Hamilton

(New Zealand Press Association)

HAMILTON, Dec. 22. Government approval of plans being prepared and tenders being called for a teachers’ training college at Melville, Hamilton, to open in 1960, has been given. Buildings ultimately to be used as a new post-primary school are to be built on a suitable site pending the construction of a planned training college. In announcing this today in a message to Dame Hilda Ross, member of Parliament for Hamilton, the Minister of Education (Mr Skoglund) said that permanent trapping college buildings could not be built in such a short time. A temporary home for the college would be provided at Melville, where the. Department of Education already had a suitable site.

“It is proposed to erect buildings to a new post-primary school design which, when a planned teachers’ training college has been built, will be used for a post-primary school at Hamilton,” Mr Skoglund said. “The building will be a twostoreyed one which will incorporate the latest features in school planning. It will contain 13 teaching rooms, an assembly hall, and administrative rooms. The main architectural features of the design are the large proportion of space devoted to teaching, the good lighting, excellent ventilation, and the provision for easy enlargement when the school roll so demands. “The South Auckland Education Board and the people of Hamilton will be gratified, I am sure, at the Government’s decision,” said Mr Skoglund. “The board has had the most difficult staffing problems to handle. This has arisen out of the extreme shortage of teachers over the last few years, the rapid economic and social development that has taken

place in South Auckland, and rapid increase in population. \ “Today a greater number bf teacher trainees .is offering and they will be most welcome,*' continued Mr Skoglund. “I feel *e must grasp the opportunity' to give them the most satisfactory, training facilities possible. There is an urgent need for another teachers* training college, and Hamilton is the most suitable location for the new college.”