"BLIND ALLEY" VOCATIONS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19512, 16 December 1926, Page 14

"BLIND ALLEY" VOCATIONS

CASfc OF POOR SCHOLARS. NATIONAL LOAN FUND IDEA. The fact that many deserving primary school pupils are debarred by the lack of financial means from entering the secondary schools' was referred to by the headmistress of the Auckland Girls' Grammar School, Miss E. M. Johnston, at the prize-giving ceremony yesterday. She also remarked that of those who did enter the secondary schools too many left to follow "blind . alley"' occupations before the end of their second year, sometimes before the end of their first year. Miss Johnston added: "Wo are told that the country is spending as much on education as it can afford,, but one wonders that the. institution of a loan fund for deserving secondary school pupils and university students, has not commended itself to the Treasury and to the Education Department as a possible solution of the problem "From such a fund, pupils and students might, under proper guarantees, borrow such sums as would enable them to continue their education until they are fitted to follow a useful profession or occupation; this would help considerably to prevent the wastage that there is bound to be when pupils are forced, as too many of them are, under present conditions, into uncongenial or unsuitable occupations."