TEACHERS WORKLESS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 69, 23 March 1931, Page 3

TEACHERS WORKLESS.

MANY OTHERS TRAINING.

SHOULD COLLEGES CLOSE ?

DEPARTMENT'S OVER-ESTIMATE,

A long spell of unemployment in their chosen profession is facing the majority of the 250 young teachers at present unplaced in the Auckland district.

According to statements made at the last meeting of the Education Board, it will be impossible to place this teaching surplus by the end of the year, and by that time the seriousness of the situation will have increased. There are now in training at the Auckland College about 430 entrants for the profession. The average training course is two years, so it may be presumed that at least 200 additional teachers will be seeking work next February, although some who completed their training three years ago are still looking in vain for permanent posts in town or country.

Other branches of the Government service placed such serious restrictions upon entry to service this year that the numbers engaged after passing the Public Service entrance examination were negligible. The teachers' training colleges in the four centres, however, opened their doors almost as widely as ever, and there must be almost 1000 trainees under instruction in the four centres to-day.

Teachers, education board officials, and members see the probability of a small army of young unemployed teachers for a long while to come. Several who fully understand the situation consider that at least two of the four training colleges should have been closed for a year or more, and that the number of hew entrants to the profession should have -been so drastically restricted that there would be some early prospect of permanent positions for all who, at heavy expense to tho State and themselves, have already been trained. The Department may be able to justify its policy on the ground of possible future requirements, but unless it does so it will leave a feeling of deep resentment among hundreds whom it already holds Under bond to serve for a period of five years after completion of their training. Board Cnairman Explains. "While I do not approve of closing down the training colleges, I think.the Education Department might have restricted the number of entrants to the teaching profession this year," commented Mr. A. Burns, chairman of the Education Board, when the foregoing observations were referred to him. "There are 250 ex-students of the Auck-' land Training College who have not permanent employment, but approximately 100 of these are receiving temporary appointments as relieving teachers, their employment varying from one month up to twelve months in rare cases. The problem of unemployed teachers has arisen largely because there have not been so many teachers leaving the service for the purpose of getting married, and for other reasons. It has also to be considered that married women, who have been out of the service for some years, are applying to obtain further employment, through, in many cases, their husbands being out of work. On their grading marks they are entitled to positions. In addition, owing to the financial stringency, the Department has not been in a position to allow the board to appoint extra assistants to classes of 60 or over, or in cases where schools have had sudden increases in attendances. Dominion-wide Problem. "The problem is not purely local, but Dominion-wide. The difficulty is that young people coming out of the colleges, owing to their youth and inexperience, have low grading marks, and consequently they have little or no hope for a year or two after leaving college of winning permanent positions. The fact that there are so many junior teachers out of employment does not jeopardise the positions of permanent teachers. The teaching profession is not competitive like ordinary businesses, and when a teacher secures a permanent appointment he has a position for life. For many years the Auckland board held back junior positions towards the end of the year for students coming out of college, and gave the latter the first permanent appointments that occurred. This was done because the board held that the students were under a bond to teach for three or five years, and it was its duty to find them permanent employment. However, in recent years it was pointed out by the Department that the board, in showing preference in that way, was acting illegally. Difficulties of the Times. "It has to be remembered that if it were not for the difficulties that are facing the Dominion at the present time, the Department would be in a position to allow the board extra assistants where there are large classes, as it has been its policy in the past to do," added Mr. Burns. "The position might be relieved by a reduction in the number of entrants to the teaching service. This year 140 were taken into the board's schools, as against 105 in the previous year, but I think tho number taken on might be still further reduced. The board has no discretion m; the matter. It appears that the Department has over-estimated its requirements so far as young teachers are concerned, or else the number of resignations' to be expected from teachers leavjng to get married or retiring on superannuation."