OUTLOOK FOR TEACHERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 3000, 19 December 1935, Page 6

OUTLOOK FOR TEACHERS.

A complete change in the outlook for the teaching profession has occurred in recent months. Not merely has the problem of unemployment among teachers been rapidly overcome, but there are to-day signs that a shortage is developing. For these reasons the various training colleges are enrolling several hundred students to take up instruction next year. In Auckland the quota allowed has been barely reached, and the position appears to be similar in the South. Thus it is likely that all who are now seeking the opportunity to enter the profession will find a place; the Department will no longer be in a position to choose from the talent oifering. When it is remembered that the number of teachers unable to find permanent positions was stated by the late Minister of Education as recently as last August to be 1200, the apparent change seems almost incredible. That retirements of young women teachers have been heavy is known, and it is also known that the normal loss from the profession amounts to about 900 a year. Unemployment is invariably more prevalent at the beginning of the school year than at the end, and the tendency for the surplus to disappear would be greater at this time when teachers are likely to find other positions opening up. - Still it must be remembered that the shortage is yet some way ahead, and the Department lias need of estimating its requirements of teachers with greater care than in the past.