TEACHERS AND DEPARTMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume 55, Issue 63, 14 March 1924, Page 4

TEACHERS AND DEPARTMENT.

Relations between teachers and the Education Department seem to be getting worse. Regulations issued recently about teaching raised quite a storm of protest. Judging by what happened when representative teachers interviewed the Minister nnd the Director of Education on the subject, the regulation most strongly objected to did not mean what the teachers thought it meant. Possibly the teachers were to blame for jumping to conclusions, but we should say that the Department was equally to blame for not making itself clear. Now two strong and regrettable protests come from "Wellington. The local Institute, resenting a remark attributed to the Director of Education, has called on teachers everywhere, until the Director corrects this impression, "to adhere strictly to the letter of the duties so laid down, thus eliminating the manyhours of voluntary service hitherto ungrudgingly Riven." At the same time the New Zealand Assistant Masters' Association objects to the alteration of salaries by Order-in Council, and threatens political reprisals. The Wellington Institute has been rebuked for its "touchiness" and for the counteraction it proposes, and certainly it is not edifying to see teachers threatening to use "ca' canny" methods. Of all people they should set a better example. Nor is it pleasant to find assistant masters looking round for a political weapon with which to correct an alleged abuse. We cannot, however, hold the Department blameless. It appears to be treating teachers with less than reasonable discretion nnd tact. Accurate apportionment of blame is impossible, but it is pretty clear there are faults on both sides. In the interests of education this frequent wrangling should cease. We do not remember a time when there was more of it, or when the temper on the side of the teachers was so warm.