Primary School Teachers

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26746, 2 June 1952, Page 6

Primary School Teachers

The agreement on the new salary scale for teachers in primary' schools appears likely to giVfe greater stability to school staffs afifl * rtiote ffeasohable bppbHuhity for teachers to advahefi in thffir profeSsidfi Without ffiriking frequefit bhanps 8f pbritioh; Both ends‘are important. Most New Zealand parents have personal knowledge bf iristafiefes ih Which Ont? tlafes has had half a dozen different teachers in one year. They may also know of instances in which a teacher has left fettfly ifi fhd jterit after being given responsibility for Some impoftdnt schbbl prdjefit, Which has languished under relieving teachers until a new appointment has been made. This chopping and changing has seriously affected the education of many children, and is all the worse because it is often the active, enthusiastic, arid able teachers who move most. All this has hot been good fbr teachers, either. If a teacher has wished to reach the top of the profession, he has had to give almost as much attention to watching for opportunities of promotion as he has to WatOhirig thfe interests bf hiS pupils. Hfe has Utmost invariably had to make anything up to a dozfefi moves (at his own expense in nearly every case) and make a new home each time. This lias ebst hlfti a good deal of money, has been unSettling for his family, and must have affected his concentfatibfi bfi HiS WBfk. THfeSfe detects of the present system have hot been caused entirely by the salary Scale, because a flgld apfJßiritmfent and grading scitemfe (WHicfi has tried to measure the comparative ability of teachers to within a Half of 1 per cent.) has also cauSed much of the trouble. Primary education, with its fiUififetbus and diverse scHdbls, crinhut be febtfipated with\secdhdary education, iri which there are many fewer schools and tfiUbH less difference ih trieit- size. Therefore it would be impossible to devise grading arid salary methods like those that allow a secondary school to keep its staff almost intact for long periods and permit a teacher to make satisfactory progress without, perhaps, ever moving. It Should; however, be possible to have sdttifetfiifig vety much better than the geriferal post that has handicapped priinafy education for lofig enough. If thb Education DepaHttlferit rifid the fcdUcStional Institute have been able tb agree on salary reforms, it should also be possible for them tb agffee bh the tbhiplbmferitary grading arid appbifitthfefit reforms; Sbihe safeguards will bb necessary to fehsure that the rifew system dries fibt go too far in the other direction, encouraging complacency and discouraging initiative among teachers: Its effect on country schools must also be Watched carefully, althbugh apparently the department believes that it Will make staffing in the country less difficult than it is now. ■fhe ValUe bf the heW salary shale cannot bfe assessed properly until it Has been tested iri practice; but on the information that has been given the change promises well.