Plans for educational TV

Press, 6 October 1980, Page 15

Plans for educational TV

Plans are being discussed for morning educational television beginning early next year. Television New Zealand and the Education Department are discussing proposals for a daily 2 J hours of educational programmes a day.

The discussions have been revealed by the Director-General of Education, Mr W. Renwick, in a letter to Monitor, the Dunedin-based pressure group concerned with children’s television in particular.

Mr Renwick said the department had been having informal meetings with the directors-general of television for three years,

largely about the production of suitable p-o--grammes. The discussions had been interrupted by the reorganisation of the Broadcasting Corporation.

He said Television New Zealand was considering 21 hours non-commercial broadcasting from 9 a.m. to Network One’s present opening time, 11.30 a.m. This might begin early next year using mainly imported programmes, most of them 8.8. C. series made for educational television.

The Education Department had given Television New Zealand information about the relevant target audiences. The programmes shown would go to the National Film Lib-

rary as the nucleus of a video-cassette, collection for schools’ use. The Post-Primary' Teachers’ Association has told Monitor that it regarded a video-cassette library as a priority over daily' telecasts because school timetables made it difficult for pupils to see programmes particularly useful at any fixed time. The Minister of Education (Mr Wellington) has said similar programmes are being considered for Saturday mornings. He said the move towards educational television had been delayed by the economic climate, television restructuring, and the preoccupation with developing complementary pro-

gramming on the two networks.

Before the plans for educational television were announced, Labour’s spokesman on television had made a stinging attack on the Broadcasting Corporation’s application with the Broadcasting Tribunal to extend its morning television time.

Mr John Terris warned a Rotary audience of “more dreary soap operas” wasting time that could be used educationally. He adv o c a t e d second-chance education, job retraining, and instruction in use of leisure time as most suitable subjects for programmes in any extended time.