Student grant process concerns council

Press, 6 December 1985, Page 16

Student grant process concerns council

Some trainee applicants chosen for Teachers’ College were Unable to accept places because they could not get a special needs grant, the Christchurch Teachers’ College Council was told.

The special needs grant, which can range from $lOOO to $14,000, is given usually, to older applicants who’ have previous, work experience, a dependent family, who are to teach a subject which needs recruits.

During the last few years the average age of applicants had increased and so the number needing a special needs grant had increased, said the director of secondary programmes, Mr Reg Graham.

Many of those who applied for a grant would not get one, although it was difficult to find out the exact number, he said. The council was concerned that potential trainees were declining their acceptances if they found they could not get a grant.

Mr Graham told “The Press” that he was concerned about the selection procedure for the special grant. He said that giving a

special allocation to people who applied for subject areas which needed more teachers caused anomalies within the college. A trainee with a special grant because he had applied to teach chemistry might sit next to a biology trainee who had no special grant, but who was worse off financially. He said it was possible that the same biology student might choose to teach chemistry when he had finished the course.

The College Council decidedto send a letter to the Director-General of Education, and to the committee set up by the Minister of Education to review the tertiary assistance grant, outlining the college’s concern about the special needs grant Chairman retires The Christchurch Teachers’ College Council chairman, Mr E. C. Robinson, retired yesterday. Mr Robinson has been a member of the council since 1974. He became the chairman in 1976.

He was congratulated on the length and quality of the

service he had given the college. Reaction to report The council received letters from the Post-Prim-ary Teachers’ Association and Linwood High School expressing concern about comments made by a senior lecturer reported in “The Press.” On November 8, Mr Stanley Newman, said that introducing peace studies to schools was part of Labour Party strategy to stay in Government He quoted the Under-secretary of Trade and Industry, Mr Neilson, who had identified peace studies as one of six desirable strategies to make the Labour Party the “natural party of government” The council was told that Mr Newman’s statement had angered many teachers, especially his suggestion that if schools became politicised parents might have to remove their children from the State system. Members of the council were reluctant to comment on Mr Newman’s statement but concluded that he, or any other lecturer, had a right to express an opinion.