DAYLIGHT CLASSES FOR APPRENTICES: DIFFICULTIES SEEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 October 1948, Page 3

DAYLIGHT CLASSES FOR APPRENTICES: DIFFICULTIES SEEN

Some. difficulty in the adoption of the Education Department's plan for daylight training of apprentices was foreseen by members of the Board of Governors of the Greymouth Technical High School at. their meeting last evening. Besides the present accommodation difficulties at the school, board members pointed out that the arrangements would prevent a certain group of apprentices, now attending evening classes which would be suspended, from continuing their training.

The commissioner of apprenticeship advised the board last evening that the school would not necessarily be .approved for the adoption- of the daylight-training scheme, but a decision would be reached in December.

Mr F. L. Turley said that a problem would be getting an instructor for daylight classes. It was hard enough to obtain a man for evening classes. The principal, Mr W. M. Stewart, who pointed out that 14 apprentices were at present studying at night school, said that he did not think that there was much chance of the night classes surviving with the deduction from the roll of those required to train during the day. He added that the local plumbers not keen on the scheme. It was thought that it would not be in the interests of plumbing trainees to advance the scheme for daylight training at the present. “The apprentices, with three years’ training will be left high and dry with no further training,” said Mr Turley. “It is a point that will be hard to get over.” Mr Stewart said that the adoption of the scheme would mean, perhaps, that more rapid steps would be taken to provide additional facilities for plumbing and motor mechanic training at the school.

Bus Service Wanted

The Canterbury Education Board wrote stating that it had received a request from Ngahere residents for a bus to be provided to convey manual training pupils from the district to the Greymouth Technical School each fortnight, and it sought information on the subject. It was stated that the train was used at present. Mr Stewart said that 33 pupils were concerned, coming from Ngahere, Nelson Creek, Ahaura and Kaiata, and, though he was not antagonistic to the bus service, he could see difficulties in the making of arrangements for the Ahaura members of the class. He stated that he had suggested to the board that it approach the Railways Road Services for its views.

Recommendations for the re-varn-ishing of the dormitory floors at the hostel were made by the visiting committte, Messrs J. H. North and J. Grant, who stated that though the floors had been varnished less than a year ago, the application had deteriorated. A suggestion was also made for a storage cupboard to be provided at the hostel for bed clothing. Four large water-filled, potholes were blocking the entrance to the hostel, it was stated, and it was decided to ask the Borough Council to tar-seal the road and part oF the drive into the institution. The chairman, Mr D. S. Kennedy, and Mr W. S. McClymont, were appointed to next month’s visiting committee.

Principal’s Report The principal reported that during the month two boys had been re-ad-mitted and one boy admitted, while 10’boys and nine girls had been withdrawn, leaving the school roll at 334, comprising 170 boys and 164 girls. The average attendance had been 91.2 per cent, ranging from 94.4 per cent to 88 per cent. The evening school and the manual training classes had not been affected by the two-week closure due to a day pupil contracting poliomyelitis, he added. During this closed period the staff had been on duty. When the school was disbanded at short notice, programmes of work for the period were assigned by form teachers, and many pupils, notably candidates tor examinations, had been sending m batches of work. After the hold-up caused by shortage of cement supplies, excellent progress was being made with the concreting of the quadrangle, and present indications were that, with a reasonable incidence of good weathm, the whole job should be comp eted some hme before the end of the school year the clnded