College upset about unpaid allowance

Press, 13 February 1986, Page 9

College upset about unpaid allowance

Childcare trainees at Christchurch Teachers’ College do not receive a $3OO allowance paid to all other teacher trainees although they were told last year they would receive it. Teachers’ College council members are upset by the Education Department’s refusal to pay the allowance. The director of primary programmes, Mr Euan Hundleby, said that departmental officials had said in October last year that the allowance would be paid to childcare trainees. The allowance is meant to cover equipment trainees have to buy. Applicants for the oneyear course were told they would receive the allowance, Mr Hundleby said, but written authority had never been received

from the department. Mr Hundleby said he asked the department why authority had not been given and was told it was because childcare had yet to be transferred from the Social Welfare Department to the Education Department. He said the department knew in October last year that the transfer would not be finished by the beginning of the year.

“I find this unsatisfactory,” Mr Hundleby said. “We have 15 students in this college who are not getting this $3OO. They appear to be second-class citizens.” The council decided to write to the Education Department and the Minister of Education, Mr Marshall, to ask why the allowance had not been paid.