‘Great Future Task’ For Institute

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32219, 11 February 1970, Page 16

‘Great Future Task’ For Institute

A more clear-cut line of approach to senior technical education had eventually emerged and technical institutes were now well established with a great future task ahead, the former principal of the Christchurch Technical Institute (Mr D. W. Lyall) said in his annual report for 1969 presented to a meeting of the institute's board of governoi-s on Monday evening.

Mr Lyall said that one of the aspects of the growth and development of the institute which he had found pleasing was the increasing interest being taken in the work not only by employing bodies and employee associations, but by secondary: schools and occasionally by) primary schools as well. This bad been particularly I evident last year and many invitations had been accepted by staff members and by himself to take part in panel discussions or to give talks on the work of the institute. Requests for special courses had also been increasing. Mr Lyall said that this was his twentieth and last annual report as principal and because of this he had been browsing through reports of some earlier years. “These leave me with somewhat mixed impressions,” he said. “The first is the length of time taken for some expected developments to come about. For example, a report on accommodation and equipment; dated October 1951 mentions.! among other things, the need | for laboratories for applied; heat, metrology and materials testing, an applied art or de-| sign studio, a maintenance! workshop and a board room. Some of these are just about: to materialise. Amount of Work “The second impression is of the amount of work the New Zealand technical colleges contrived to perform over the years with limited facilities. “In Christchurch in 1935, for instance, the Technical High School roll was over 1300 and the evening school roll about 1500, all in a school of 36 ‘permanent’ rooms and some ‘temporary’ rooms. By 1959, the high school roll was still 924, with 936 part-time or block course day apprentices and 2700 evening class enrolments. This and similar establishments certainly used their resources to the full," he said. Mr Lyall said that during the year student enrolments showed some increases and decreases with an over-all increase in individual enrol-

f i ments of slightly more than 118 per cent. Figures for the various I broad categories included, >i full-time courses 241, comi, pared with 231 in 1968: part- > I time day or evening courses, -15133 (4258): block courses, H 1965 (1763). Several new '[classes or courses had been offered during the year in [the building, commerce and ’ engineering departments and I the science, maths and gene- • ral department. “It seems to me that the i work of the science, mathe- ■ matics and general studies ) department might now be divided,” said Mr Lyall. “It : has grown considerably since I the department was first es- • tablished and now embraces i very diverse groups of studies. The ‘general studies' ' group would now seem to - justify a separate depart- ; ment.” Examinations Facilities had been pro- ' vided as usual for a wide ! range of examinations, and [it was interesting to note the ji growth of these examinations. Last year more than 1000 individual students sat '.various papers for the New [[Zealand certificate, while ‘:some 1890 students sat one, [or more of 212 different i . papers in the trade certificate examinations. There had been a tendency also for ; some of the practical trades : examinations work to be transferred from the Trades Certification Board to the institutes. The weighted student- , hours for the year on which I the basic staffing allowance • for 1970 was based was 1 slightly more than 1.13 railI lion. The corresponding; [ basic staffing was 101.3 , equivalent full-time tutors. . The corresponding figures for ’ 1969 were 1.08 million [ weighted student-hours and .97.16 equivalent full-time [tutors. I Mr Lyall said that during , the year a considerable; amount of work had been r done to the buildings and [ grounds. Major changes in[. ! the appearance of the site! 1 had resulted from the re-[i ’ moval of the old malt-house [ and of the old huts and the! former “side school” building near Moorhouse Avenue. The most disappointing feature of the building pro-i gramme had been the hold-up! in progress of plans for the new multi-storey block. New equipment approved during the year amounted to about $120,000! About 600 volumes had been added to the technical library and 80 , to the small general library under the hall. The present! stocks were 4380 volumes in the technical library and 1 I 3230 in the general library. 4