SHORTAGE OF TEACHERS

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25308, 7 October 1947, Page 8

SHORTAGE OF TEACHERS

FEWER SPECIALISTS LIKELY It is probable that there will be a substantial reduction in the number of primary school teachers selected for training as specialists next year. This is another move to make as many teachers as possible available for general class wor’k and to relieve the shortage of staff which is likely to be more acute, as even larger enrolments than this year are expected. This year there are more than 50 teachers being trained in New Zealand to give specialist instruction The courses are for one year. In some cases students with special ability are chosen immediately after graduation from teachers’ training colleges and other teachers take the extra training after practical experience of general work in the schools.

The cut in numbers will be applied chiefly through the closing of some courses and also through limited admission to others. Specialists’ courses in music, agriculture, and physical education are likely to be dropped for next year, leaving art and crafts, education of the deaf, speech therapy, and education of backward children.