Help For Museum Teaching Sought

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30936, 17 December 1965, Page 1

Help For Museum Teaching Sought

Suspecting that the Education Department may not appreciate the value of educational work being done at the Canterbury Museum, the Museum Trust Board has decided to invite a representative of the Carnegie Foundation to come to Christchurch and report on the work.

It was the Carnegie Foundation which 'started the museum’s educational scheme in 1938. Members said yesterday that the board was not getting enough co-operation from the Education Department.

The board had before it a report from its education officer (Mr J. H. Johnson) saying that repeated applications for a third education officer had not been successful, and that this was to be regretted, as the need was great. Mr Johnson said that 44,806 children had attended the museum for instruction during the year, including 1794 from North Island schools.

This was 3649 more than in 1964. “The steady increase in the demand for our services continues to stretch our resources, and it is problematical how much more the service can stand and maintain the efficiency of the work,” said his report He said it seemed unlikely that under the Christchurch Teachers’ College's new organisation for a third year of training, the college would be able to provide the steady flow of student teachers on which the museum’s present organisation depended. The position would become acute in 1988, and only a fraction of the classes would be catered for.