TRAINING TEACHERS

Southland Times, Issue 18962, 8 June 1923, Page 5

TRAINING TEACHERS

DEPARTMENT DEMANDS ADHERENCE TO BONDS. (Per United Press Association). WELLINGTON, June 6. A memorandum has been issued by the Education Department to the secretaries of the Boards of Education and Training College principals, stating that the Government pays in fees, allowances and on the training of each student, an average of nearly £5OO and must therefore, require strict adherence to the training college bond, otherwise a woman, in particular, might secure a few years her education at the Government’s expense without giving the education authorities any return whatever. The Department requests the Education Boards to consider this before forwarding recommendations that students should be released from their bonds on the occasion of their marriage. If the Education Department regarded marriage as a sufficient reason for annulment, bonds would become almost valueless in the case of a woman student. Further, there was no authority for the cancellation of a bond on any other ground than that the student was medically unfit for the teaching service. Neither the Department nor the Minister had any legal authority to annul a bond on the ground that the student concerned has been married unless repayment of the fees and allowances was made in proportion to the length of the uncompleted portion of service required, viz., five years for men and three years in the case of women students.