PUBLIC SERVICE COLLEGE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16417, 4 May 1921, Page 2

PUBLIC SERVICE COLLEGE.

CADETS AS SCHOLARS.

j [FffiOM OrR COMUSSPOKOTCTT.I wblungton. . May 3. TVio Public Service educational RtanI a primary sebooi- 1° s ■ i trance examination '-isna ly qu.rcs ! another t«o years’ ond { ';', ‘ ' h, ' ro -'ent Kev- Zealand parents du l l at recent ! veers liavo evidently doubted whether, i jjil attractions of a position m the 1 n-i ; ic Service provided sufficient compensa- ' tiott for the education required. Then ! bovs have found better openings tn out- | side employment, consequently I the I public Service Commissioner, in?wßfl c>i being able to pick from a long examioaI tion' list those cadets required .o keep I the service up to normal, has bad to I CO in for special propaganda, and pro- ! vide the extra education at the State s ’Tlii'sHs the reason for the Public Ser- : ,-ico college which has been at work m i Wellington for sorera! months Ino [ Commissioner has taken probationary ; cadets into the service without insisting. ! on the educational standard of tlie Pub--1 lie Service entrance examination, hut las a good knowledge of English, arlt-h----jme tic, history. legible hand-writing, land a capacity to c„bmifc to rcas-onah e i discipline are eseson tials in the Punlio I Service, this college exists to give the 1 necessary finish to the product ot the ! primarv school. It. i? in the charge : of tho former head master of a large I nriroarv school. and in order to avoid i ] s( s37y initial expense for buildings—as I the venture is an experiment—the Cent- , missions has arranged with the I Y.M.C.A. to have the use of almost the I whole of tlie top floor of that institution in Wellington, while the pupils I whose homos are not in the city are j boarded at tho Y.M.t .A. ft residential ! institution. “ Donbank.” j The system followed is to take the i rrimarv* school product, place it in Wellington office? connected with va--1 rious branches of the Public Service, i and constitute the boy a halt-time cadet on a sa.la.rv of £65 per annum, with a boarding allowance of £-10 per annum. Tho cadet works half the day at an office. and spends the other half ot the usual Public Service hours at the college. where he is put through a aerondarv course suitable for his future career. There are 150 hors attending the college, which is organised on lines cioselv apovoxi mating to a secondary school. They have a school uniform, r.nd a motto. “ Loyalty and Efficiency.” The school staff is keen on discipline and games, and the bovs arc under good supervision in the hostel. Several parents from a distance who have come to Wellington to see hove the. system works have expressed their satisfaction at the care taken to safeguard the welfare of their hoys. As the pupils are gathered from all parts of the "Dominion, trend ships are formed which will do much to create good feeling between the future pubhc servants, wherever thev happen to be placed. It is too early in the experiment to say how long this part-time education will takes to fit the pupil for the Public SerI vice entrance examination.. but after | three months' working, the college expects to turn out twenty finished pupils who have already had some secondary education.