Studentship Offer Criticised

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31409, 30 June 1967, Page 12

Studentship Offer Criticised

Recent advertisements issued by the Education Department, offering $5OOO (£2500) for degree studies to prospective teachers do not tell the full story, says Mr P. W. Rosier, education officer of the Canterbury University Students’ Association.

“Parents of children intending to enrol at university next year should be concerned at the offer made by these advertisements, and should make their children aware of the heavy obligations a postprimary studentship involves,” he said.

“At 17 years of age, the usual age for a child to leave school to attend university, a child is bonding himself to the teaching profession for at least seven years. He must complete his degree—taking a minimum of three years—spend a year at a training college, and after this must teach for the number of years he took to obtain his degree, i.e. three or more years. “It is felt that at 17 few children realise that by accepting a studentship they are bonding themselves (and their parents) to work for one employer until they are 23 or 24, and later, if they travel overseas for up to two years,” said Mr Rosier.

“The drastic shortage of teachers in New Zealand is unfortunate, but the studentship scheme does not seem to be the best method to alleviate this shortage. The Government should seek alternative schemes to recmit more teachers rather than bond 17-year-olds to a profession they may well dislike heartily after a year’s teaching. “A reallocation of student-

ship funds to increasing salaries would be a reasonable start to helping alleviate the secondary teaching shortage. But the Government cannot escape an obligation to make the profession a great deal more attractive to university graduates than it is at present.”