VOLUNTARY AID
POSITION OF TEACHERS THEIR PRESENT WORK A FINE WAR EFFORT Many New Zealand woman teachers who have been trained as V.A.’s and have taken a keen interest in Red Cross work may have experienced a feeling of disappointment and frustration at the prohibition which has been placed on their volunteering fol overseas service, says “ National Education.” At first sight the Government’s action in this connection may have seemed unjust treatment of a particular class. The executive of the New Zealand Educational Institute has examined the position very carefully, however, and, after taking everything into consideration, agreed that the stand taken by the Minister of Education on the subject was in the best interests of education, and his action was justified. Mr Mason said: “ Teaching is an essential work, and it is better that the V.A.D. requirements, at least for the present, should be met by those who can go without leaving essential work undone. . . . The eagerness of many teachers to go as V.A.’s is consistent with the high sense of duty of their profession, but at present they are serving the nation’s need by doing that specialist work for which they have been trained, and for which it would not be easy to find substitutes.”
The Institute feels that all teachers who have the interest of the children at heart will heartily agree with the Minister’s sentiments. The provision of adequate educational facilities for children in New Zealand is just as much an essential war work as any
other form of service, and those woman teachers who have been denied the opportunity to serve as V.A.’s will, it is felt, realise that in carrying on as teachers in New Zealand they are serving their country just as surely as those of their sex who have gone overseas.
More and more responsibility will be placed on the woman members of the profession as the war situation develops, and such responsibility must be regarded as a very real contribution to the future of the nation.
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Bibliographic details
Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 64, Issue 4534, 9 February 1942, Page 8
Word Count
335VOLUNTARY AID Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 64, Issue 4534, 9 February 1942, Page 8
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