Eybers Commission

The Eybers Commission (also referred to as the G.W. Eybers Commission or the Eybers Commission of Enquiry), was a commission of enquiry instituted by the Minister of Education, Arts and Science (Mr J.H. Hofmeyr) in 1945 to study the educational and social needs of the country after the second world war. Headed by G.W. Eybers, the commissions voluminous report recommended the founding of a National Council for Adult Education. Eybers was the first director, and being a theatre lover, he in 1947 approved the formation of an advisory committee devoted to theatre, headed by the chairman of FATSSA, P.P.B. Breytenbach. It was under the aegis of this sub-committee that FATSSA obtained its first grant of £400, plus a loan of £3,600 in 1947, to organise professional tours in 1948, and - in effect - to establish the National Theatre Organisation (NTO).

Sources

Stead, 1985b

For more information

See also National Council for Adult Education and National Theatre Organisation

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