Student hardship plea rejected

Press, 26 February 1983, Page 12

Student hardship plea rejected

PA . Wellington Tertiary students who did not have a job over the summer holidays will not be automatically eligible for the weekly $lO hardship grant. The Minister of Education. Mr Wellington, has rejected the requests by teacher trainees, university students, and technical institute students to approve hardshhip status to those unemployed over Christmas. In a letter to the groups. Mr Wellington said that he could not accept the financial implications of the clause. Under the tertiary assistance grant scheme, introduced this year, an extra $9 million had been pumped

into bursary payments via the accommodation allowance. He said that he had talked to the Labour Department and Social Welfare Department before reaching the decision. However, students are unimpressed by the Minister’s reply. The president of the Technical Institute Students' Association. Mr Paul Gourlie. said that the decision would have widespread effects. "Our surveys have shown that about 50 per cent of our members did not have holiday employment," he said. "We are starting to get students from families

wealthy enough to put their children through polytechnic. “Lots of students were relying on that hardship grant. 1 can see some will have to withdraw because thej- cannot afford to carry on. "Withdrawals are disastrous because funding is based on class-contact hours." University students said that they were angry about the decision and upset at the delays taken to get a reply. The’ problems had arisen from the Government's scrapping the $26 million Student Community Services Programme last year, a student leader. Mr Robin Arthur, said.