RAPID GROWTH

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 147, 19 December 1930, Page 16

RAPID GROWTH

OVER 3000 STUDENTS BIG TECHNICAL COLLEGE

The total number of students in all departments of: the Wellington Technical College is now over 3000, which is a record. During the last ten years the number of pupils in the Technical High School has more than trebled, and the number ■in - the evening and ■ art schools more than doubled.

Commonting on these figures at yesterday's brcakiiig-up ceremony, Mr. J. H. Howell, tlio Director, said: "The total enrolment in the Technical High School is 909, compared with 855 last year. In the art school it is 396, compaced with 356; and in the evening school 1724, compared with 1745. The grand total is 3029. The small decrease in the evening school has taken place among the women students, and is, I believe, to bo accounted for by the serious difficulty of access to the college during tiic winter months owing to the closing of Buckle street for re-grading and the building operations at the college itself. "It may be of interest to compare the enrolments of the High School and the combined Evening and Art Schools for the years.from 1920 to. 193,0. The figures, which increase steadily;year to year, show that the. number of,students in the Technical' High School in 1920 was 299, and in 1930 909. For the same two years tho numbers in the Evening and Art Schools were 1146 and 2120.

'' Tho year just • past,'' said Mr. ilowcll, "has been a. difficult one for staff and pupils alike, since such extensive building operations as have been carried on during the last1 seven months cannot take place without great inconvenience. But the good discipline of the school has been maintained, although a great part of the playground has been monopolised by the contractor. This could not have been achieved without cordial "co-operation . between the prefects and monitors and the staff, and I. wish to express my deep appreciation of their help. "While the school prepares very fey pupils for outside examinations and discourages entry for any examination except for a definitely useful purpose, I should perhaps :call attention to the noteworthy successes of our Technical High School pupils during the year. At the recent shorthand-typistes' examination held by the Public Service Commissioner, all the pupils entering from the day school passed, two of them being in their . second year only, and several being below the age at which they can secure appointment. At tho last matriculation examination 18 pupils entered and 1(5 passed, one of them being 0n1y,140 years of age, and all of them have taken, in addition to the subjects for the. university examination;!, either a commercial or an engineering course. These results are ;i sufficient testimony to the skilled teaching they have received."