VOLUNTEER IN SAMOA

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30941, 23 December 1965, Page 14

VOLUNTEER IN SAMOA

Teaching For A Year

A Christchurch boy, who was in the upper sixth form at Shirley Boys’ High School last year, returned recently from a year’s teaching in Western Samoa for the Volunteer Service Abroad.

He is Philip Hague, aged 19, who taught forms three and four at A’ana Junior High School in Samoa.

He lived with another volunteer from Timaru in a flat below the headmaster’s house and they bought and cooked their own meals. The Samoan Government paid a small amount for food and board and £1 a week for pocket money to the volunteers, but the generosity of the islanders made it all go a long way, he said. Philip said that there were 470 pupils at the school. The day started at 8 a.m. and finished at 1 p.m. Occasionally afternoon school was held, especially near examination time.

In their first year at high school pupils were put in special English classes because no English was taught in the village schools, he said. They then continued on to the equivalent of New Zealand high school grades. He did not think his year abroad had been wasted, as what he had gained in experience could not be assessed in terms of money. He plans to study law at the University of Canterbury next year.