Studentship Bond Claim Settled

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32226, 19 February 1970, Page 22

Studentship Bond Claim Settled

(New Zealand Press Association) OAMARU, February 18. A claim brought by the Education Department for money owing under the terms of a studentship scheme was settled in the Oamaru Magistrate’s Court this afternoon.

An Oamaru schoolteacher, Colin George Dennison, paid $ll3l into Court and he

agreed to judgment for the! balance, $1226. No plea was entered yester-l day or at the hearing on February 4. Dennison had a studentship for five years and under the terms of the bond was required to teach in New Zea-, land for five years, or refund' the money paid to him. At the last hearing Mr 1. H. Main for the Education Department -said the claim was issued under writ of arrest as it was understood Dennison was about to leave the country. In Hamilton yesterday, the Auckland Regional Superintendent of Education (Mr H. H. Craig), said that the Education Department bent over backwards to avoid de- ! manding payment of the bond i teachers signed when they entered teachers’ college, should they fail to fulfil its terms.

Mr Craig was speaking at the monthly meeting of the South Auckland Education' Board. The bond was always a sorei topic, said Mr Craig. “If a person shows himself I unsuitable for teaching in any, way his studentship is termi nated at no cost to himself) and often no salary has to be paid back. “It is disturbing to see illhealth and marriage claiming so many each year,” he said “Also, at the end of each year many see they are unsuitable and decide to stop then in-i stead of going on in the, teaching profession.”