THE TRAINING COLLEGE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20704, 30 April 1929, Page 9

THE TRAINING COLLEGE.

TO THE EDITOR. Sis, —I would like to make some protest against the system by which students when they 1 ave our Training College are given no means by which they may link themselves to it, but are forced to dissociate themselves from, it, entirely. 1 feel strongly about this matter, and many other ex-students have spoken to me regarding it, wondering why no attempt has been made to correct this obvious defect. Students enter the Training College, and for two years it almost comprises their world They find there not only their work, but their sports, their amusements, their social life, and they may form friendships which might well prove lifelong if more opportunity were given to foster them after the students leave the college anc scatter throughout the Dominion. Tc me it is a serious omission that while nearly all schools and higher educational institutions have exatudenta'clubs or associations, anything of th. like is conspicuously lacking in our Training College. I believe it is a fact that during the recent jubilee celebrations ir 1926 some sort of Ex-students' Association was formed, but it appears to have died a singularly early death, as nothing at all has been heard either of it or of its activities. Surely the committee, if a committee was appointed, could beatir itself to remedy this slackness, and see that some feasible scheme is put forward_ which would make an ex-studcnts’ association a reality, and not a castle in the air. The Training Colleges in Auckland and in Wellington cater fo- tbjse students who have left by holding frequent reunions which take the form of pleasant «OClal gatherings If some such method of keeping the students in touch with one another were introduced here there would be more cause for satisfaction. During the school holiday! a large num ber_ oi teacher: come to Dunedin to spend their vacation. There is no doubt that they would welcome any form of reunion which would link them by more tangible ties to their Training College and to their fellow-students.. I sincerely hope that this appeal may at least serve as a pinprick to waken the dormant Ex-students’ ■Association Committee, and that some

suggestions will be forthcoming as regards the formation of an active ex-students’ association.—l am, etc., Ex-Student.