EDUCATION OF ADULTS

Taranaki Daily News, 29 January 1934, Page 9

EDUCATION OF ADULTS

CARNEGIE CORPORATION GRANT. DOUBT ABOUT USE OF £3125. Adult education work carried on by the constituent colleges of the University of New Zealand is to be assisted further by the Carnegie Corporation, New York, according to advice received at Wellington by Professor T. A. Hunter, ViceChancellor of the University. In the terms of the message 2500 dollars has been allocated this year for the adult education libraries, and 10,000 dollars for adult education work. The briefness of the message leaves some little doubt as to the exact manner in which the money grant will be allocated. Dr. J. Hight, Rector of Canterbury College, said that the corporation had been considering two enterprises in adult educational work in New Zealand, and that it was not quite clear which of these it was the intention of the benefactors to extend or promote. For more than four years the corporation had been conducting an experiment in conjunction with the University of Otago and Canterbury College. In Dunedin this experiment had been concerned with the provision of -domestic science courses for persons in remote rural districts, while in Christchurch the chief object had been the dissemination of academic knowledge in rural districts, particularly in subjects on the arts side, such as literature, economics, philosophy, and the appreciation of music and art generally. This had been carried out in co-operation with the Workers’ Educational Association, largely through the box system. The Carnegie Corporation had been considering the extension of this work, and the new grant might be intended for this purpose. On the other hand, the corporation had also considered the question of giving monetary assistance to general university extension work in the four colleges. Under this scheme courses of a university type would be made available to those living away from a university centre, not necessarily with the intention of preparing them for examinations, but merely to widen the field of cultural education of a higher type. If the message sent to Professor Hunter were read strictly, said Dr. Hight, this scheme would perhaps appears to be the object of the grant.