EDUCATING SOLDIERS

Grey River Argus, 18 March 1941, Page 10

EDUCATING SOLDIERS

N.Z. Army School NO DECISION REACHED. [Per Press Association] WELLINGTON, March 15. Although the question of setting up an education department _ attached to the Army has been raised on several occasions, the Minister for Defence (the Hon. F. J'ones) said that no decision has been reached Recently the Australian Government appointed Dr. R. 13. Madgwick, secretary of the Sydney University Extension Board, and an authority on adult education, as director of a new army department of education. His rank was expected to be that of lieutenant-colonel, and he was to be given an adequate staff, advised by a council in Sydney. When asked if similar steps had been taken in New Zealand to appoint an educational officer. Mr. Jones said he agreed with Mr. P. C. Spender, Minister for the Army in Australia, that it was, necessary that the Army should give a soldier a chance to revert to civil life equipped mentally and vocationally to his own advantage, and that of society to which he must return. “We have educational officers at Air Force stations in Now Zealand who also equip the men for the future,” the Minister said. “We also have educational officers in the Navy, but no decision has been arrived at on the question of appointing educational officers to the Army. The work of training a soldier is fairly intensive. and there' is little time left in which a course of instruction can be given. Whether the soldier wants an instructional or recreational course has yet to be determined.”