TEACHERS' TRAINING COLLEGE

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 130, 29 November 1909, Page 3

TEACHERS' TRAINING COLLEGE

AN INTERESTING POINT. [BY TELEGRAPH — PHESS ASSOCIATION.] DUNEDIN, 27th November. A J ei 7 interesting discussion arose at the Education Board meeting regarding the position of teachers undergoing the two years' course at the Teachers' Iraining College. A pupil teacher at the college is allowed an annual allow2£n c 2f2 f ,£3O, £30 if a resident of Dunedin, and ±.o0 if he or she has to live away from home. The college is open nine months ot the year, and the remaining three according to the general interpretation of the regulations, is at the disposal of students concerned. Pupil teachers from both the Southland and Otago Education Boards attend the college, and during the vacation in January and February the majority of them take employment as pupil teachers in larger schools. In the past, while the Otago Board has regarded this duty on the part of pupil teachers as in a sense obligatory and has paid them nothing for their services beyond the bursary provided on account ot the training college, the Southland Board has paid its relieving pupil teachers the full amount allowed by the regulations to pupil teachers, in addition to college allowance. It would appear that the Education Department has just discovered this latter fact, and a letter was read at to-day's meeting, in which the department stated . that the Southland pupil teachers would have to refund the whole amount paid them on account of the training college while they were recei r v m g salary from the Southland Board. • r ?i bo . to-day w ent thoroughly into the whole position, and, while condemning in a very thorough manner its own treatment of Iraining college students in the past, expressed unbounded indignation at the unfair restrictions pioposed to be placed upon these younc teachers by the department. It is coi£ tended that students while the college is not in session have every right to seek to increase their allowance by doing teaching work when such offers', and it is . held that the allowance made to students is iin annual allowance, and is not a monthly payment, us tlu> department's action would suggest. The board is taking legal advice as to its position and the position of the students.