COLLEGE BOARD.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17351, 16 May 1924, Page 7

COLLEGE BOARD.

jy&xr" *» CONSERVATISM ALLEGED.

Change of constitution

URGED.

Changes in the constitution of the feoard of Governors of Canterbury t CoUege were urged at to-day’s meeting of the Canterbury Education. jßoard. Mr W. A. Banks said that he had jfreoeived a letter from Mr L. B. Wood tuging a reform oi the constitution of !tho Board of Governors. The Education Board should be represented on ■the college board, as it was interested [in pupils right up to the university sH.e moved:—“That this board supports ! the Board of Governors of the Technical College in urging reform of the of the Board of Govcrifcors of Canterbury College.'’ Air E. H. Andrews seconded the trotion. He said that the time was more than rip® for a change in the ‘•constitution of the college board, it • tvas extraordinary that the Education Board did not have a say in the election of a single member of the college board. In the three other educational cVstr.ctfi. ti e t ('lege boards Jwero elected on more democratic principles. The Board of Governors ot Canterbury College, he believed, was the most conservative body of its kind in New Zealand.- The method of electing representatives of school 'tximmifctees to it— Mr A. Peverill: Is a farce. Mr Andrews : Is a farce—the way the roll is prepared and the way votes are taken, and the little publicity given. There was an acrid discussion a few years ago because this board presumed to suggest that pupils sent to the high schools, which are controlled by the college board, were not getting justice in certain directions, and we were told to mind our own business. We thought it was our own business. The Board of Governors of the Technical College has suggested a scheme for a new constitution, giving educational bodies more jc presentation on the college board That scheme should be carefully considered and I should like iho motion to be more emphatic, but we might pass it in the meantime and go into the scheme later on. Tho college board is too large. The number of Parliamentary representatives on it cculd be cut down, and local bodies could be given more representation. It has twenty-six members. Fancy a board of twenty-six governing a university college; you might say one school, while this board, with twelve members, controls 400 schools. The motion was carried unanimously.