CABINET CRITICISED

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 125, 22 November 1935, Page 9

CABINET CRITICISED

TRAINING COLLEGE DECISION

"BAD OUTLOOK FOR

SCHOOLS"

(By Telegraph.) (Special to the "Evening. Post.")

DUNEDIN, This Day.

Mr. Wallace, chairman of the Otago Education Board, in his attack on Cabinet for not reopening the Dunedin and Wellington training colleges, said: "I am very glad to see that the Wellington board is taking a firm' stand. My opinion is that if Wellington lfed taken a stand such as Otago. took at the beginning of the fight we might have had our colleges. Of course, that is all old history."

The secretary of the board mentioned that Otago was asked to find one-tenth of the Dominion total of trainees.

Mr. Wallace said Wellington's applications totalled 38, while the quota was between 65 and 70. The Wellington chairman had stated that the district would be unable to supply its quota for Division A, the usual twoyear course. There were only 58 Otago applicants (16 males and 42 females). Last year there were 89 applicants, but prior to that, when the college was in their midst, the yearly average over a number of years was 140. Otago . had,,.' always been able to make a selectio^'of the very best students offering, but now it would be compelled to take practically every student offering, and that was a bad outlook for the schools, because the board could not overestimate the influence of a strong teacher on the lives of his pupils. Wellington was in a worse position. It had only 38 Division A applicants lor probably 72 vacancies; on the other hand, Canterbury, which along with Otago had always been a strong recruiting ground, had 163 Division A applicants, equal to or possibly above their usual figures.

"It is evident that the closing of the colleges in Otago and Wellington, or rather the decision not to reopen them next year when conditions justify it, has been a definite factor : in turning the minds of young people away from the teaching profession," • said Mr. Wallace. "I say most emphatically that Cabinet is drying up a well from which they have drawn very good water in Otago. at any rate, for many years. Probably hundreds of our best teachers would never have been teachers had there not been a college in our midst. It is a short-sighted policy to interfere in matters which affect the calibre of our teachers and in turn the children under them."