TEACHERS' CONDITIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 187, 9 August 1932, Page 6

TEACHERS' CONDITIONS.

BONDS, EMPLOYMENT AND MARRIAGE.

(To the Editor.)

It is refreshing in these days of repudiation and kindred evils to note that the Government, through the Director of Education, is putits foot down in the matter of the student who has decided she prefers not to wait until she has finished her training to be told that no position is available for her. The consideration shown by the Minister was most touching, but between the lines could bo read, "My bond—l will have my bond." Could a more one-sided contract be imagined? A student is bound to serve the Department for so manv years after leaving college, and, if no opportunity is provided for service (the Department does not guarantee any position), the unemployed teacher may not even accept other employment, unless he resigns and forfeits his bond. The writer is aware that many ex-students have earned the gratitude of the board by becoming married and diminishing the roll of unemployed —and the Department has claimed no bond. Yet this student, faced with the prospict of idleness, is to be held to her bond, presumably because she is still in college. It is probable that next year when students are forced to live and study on seven shillings per month many more of the flowers of the profession will be plucked from the nursery of teachers. SPECTATOR.