TRAINING COLLEGE STUDENTS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXIV, Issue 12935, 27 November 1909, Page 5

TRAINING COLLEGE STUDENTS.

«» OTACO BOARD CONDEMNS DEPARTMENT'S ACTION. (Per United Press Association.) DUNEDIN, November 27. A very intprastingr discussion arose at the Education Board meeting, regarding the posit on. of teacher? undergoing a two years' course at the Teachers' Tiaining College. A pupil teacher at the College is allowed an annual allowance of £30 per year, if a resident of Dunedin, and £60 if he or she has to live away from home. The College ia open for nine months in the ' yeajr, and the remaining three, according ' to the general interpretation of the regulations, is at the disposal of the student concerned. Pupil teachers from both th«j Southland and Otago Education Districts attend the College,* and during the vacation in January and February, the majority of them take employment as pupil teachers in the larger schools. In the past, while the Otago Board has regarded t\vg duty on the part of the pupil teachers as in a sense obligatory, and has paid them nothing for their services beyond the bursary provided on account of the Training College, the Southland Board has paid its relieving pupil teachers the full amount j allowed by the regulations to pupil teach, ere, in addition to the College allowance. It would appear that the Education Department lias just discovered this latter fact, and a letter was read at to-day's meeting, in which the Department 6tated that the Southland pupil teachers would have to refund the whole amount- naid them on account of the Training College while they were receiving a salary from the Southland Board. The Board to-day went thoroughly into the whole position, and while condemning in a very thorough manner its own treatment of Training- College students in the past, expressed unbounded indignation at the unfair restrictions proposed to be placed upon these youngs teachers by the Department. It is contended that students, while the College is not in session, have every right to seek to increase their allowance by doing 1 teaching work when sucn is offered, and it is held that the allowance made to students is an annual allow, ance. and is not a monthly payment, as the Department's action would suggest. The Board is taking legal advice as to its position, and the position of the students.