TEACHERS' EXCHANGES

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 22, 26 January 1929, Page 10

TEACHERS' EXCHANGES

CONSIDERATION BY WOMEN

International educational exchanges and the facilities for travel of women teachers in New 'Zealand will come under discussion at tho biennial conference, of the, New Zealand.Federation of University Women to. bo held at.Canterbury College at tho beginning of next week. The federation- has been asked by the International Headquarters in London to conduct'a research into this question. . . The Christehurch branch of the New Zealand Federation has already drawn up a report on the education of Indian girls in Fiji. This work was carried on under the direction of Miss Alice Candy, convener of the Internation.'Relations Committee of the Federation of University Women, and lecturer in history at Canterbury College. 'It was undertaken because of the. unsatisfactory social conditions among theilndiali in Fiji and because the majority of social workers to-day recognise that the approcb to any permanent raising of tho stand-; ard of national life must be made alongl.hc lino of improving the conditions of women. It was found that the greatest obstacles to tho education, of Indian girls in Fiji arose from religion, marriage, custom, national prejudice, and a conservatism a thousand years old. Only 2.5 per cent, of the women over fifteen years of ago as compared with 35.5 of the men of the same' ago were able to read or write. One influence likely to lesson this disparity is the growing disinclination on the part of the educated Indian youth to mate with an illiterate

wife,

Remits dealing with post-graduate fellowships and research work will also come under consideration.