THE EDUCATION BOARD'S GYMNASTICS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22068, 26 September 1933, Page 10

THE EDUCATION BOARD'S GYMNASTICS

TO ,THE EDITOR. Sis,—lf there were a real humourist in Otago, surely he would find ample material for nis wit in the mental gymnastics of the Otago'Education Board. . This body seems to be for ever in a position of resentful opposition to the. Education Department in Wellington, for ever finding out alleged ways ot saving money for the department, and for ever itching to go to Wellington and run the whole of the education for the Dominion. Sad to say, the department, while, humouring . the board to the extent that an indulgent parent might, humour a wilful child, has been compelled to "turn down " many of these brain waves that have issued from the quiet purlieus of Moray place west. Fresh in the memory of everybody will be the mournful whjfte that issued from,this ordinarily decorous establishment when the Education Department proposed to close the expensive Training College for teachers in. Dunedin. According to the chairman and his supporters this threatened closing down could only be compared to a threat from some foreign Power to bombard Dunedin and lay Knox Church in ruins. The case was go urgent that the chairman and some others got a trip to Wellington out of it, with a result that was clear to every straightthinking individual in the Dominion, as Christchurch Training College has now followed Otago, and still the heavens have not fallen; but Mr Wallace seems to have a charige of heart, and is off on another track. According to your issue of the 22nd inst. he is now mightily concerned that the number of teachers will exceed the supply, although formerly his cry was that if the Training College were to go there would not be enough teachers to go round!' Now, according to the published statement, his heart simply bleeds for the " Division C students," and the board suggested (no doubt in all due humility) " that no further students of this class be trained in 1934, as there would be over 100 of this type looking for work at the beginning of 1934r —sufficient to meet all secondary and primary requirements for New Zealand for the next three or four years." Then Mr W a H ace naively complains that the Director of Education had " dodged the complaint that there was a surplus of teachers," and smugly quotes " Facts are chiels that winna ding." Can it be possible that the fact has not yet penetrated Mr Wallace's understanding that Mr Masters, as Minister of Education, foresaw that too many teachers were being trained in New Zealand, and accordingly closed two of the training colleges? A man who could take such a drastic step in face of pronounced provincial opposition can surely be trusted to deal with the minor issue of division C students. Mr Wallace is positively comic when he protests so vehemently against the new regulation that teachers will resume school after holidays on the Monday, and not the Tuesday as at present laid down by the Otago Education Board. Mr Wallace is an employing printer, and I would ask him: "Would that be the practice of a business man?" Perhaps his reply would be that education in New Zealand is not a business, but merely a diversion enjoyed in the intervals between innumerable holidays.—l am, etCM No Humbug. Balclutha, September 23.