CUT IN MUSEUM CLASSES

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30110, 19 April 1963, Page 11

CUT IN MUSEUM CLASSES

Director Mentions

Possibility

Standard 3 pupils might have to be excluded from classes and lectures at the Canterbury Museum because of a lack of instructors, the Museum Trust Board was told yesterday. The museum’s director (Dr. R. S. Duff), presenting the education officer’s report, said that although the exclusion of Standard 3 pupils would give some relief in the handling of classes it would be at best a stop-gap.

Second-year students from the Teachers’ College completed their teaching section at the museum on March 29, and post-primary student teachers also completed their section on April 5, leaving no students for museum classes for the remainder of the term.

“This will seriously inconvenience us in our teaching, as in addition to the many requests we have received for lessons in the first half of the school year, an additional 40 have been made from schools planning educational visits to Christchurch,” the report said. The large numbers of postprimary pupils attending lessons at the museum were one of the most pleasing features of the year’s work, Dr. Duff said. Already 2630 pupils had attended lessons in 1963, compared with 2299 for the whole of 1962. The opening of the hall of biology and the proposed new wing would mean a further growth in this figure, a development of great value to the public standing of the museum’s educational programme.