TEACHER DENIES ALLEGATIONS

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28343, 31 July 1957, Page 13

TEACHER DENIES ALLEGATIONS

Publicity On Staff Shortages

(New Zealand Press Association) TIMARU, July 30.

Allegations of “pressure taqtics” in the present agitation over the shortage of post-primary school teachers, voiced by Government speakers in the House of Representatives, were answered by the immediate past-presi-dent of the New Zealand PostPrimary Teachers’ Association (Mr M. A. Bull) today. Mr Bull, who is rector of Timaru Boys’ High School, claimed that the association was exercising “a democratic right proved highly necessary.” “We have been submitting a case for increased teacher recruitment to the Minister of Education (Mr R. M. Algie) since 1949,” said Mr Bull. “We are satisfied that the very few steps taken by the Minister have been unrealistic and inadequate to meet the situation.”

After eight years of unsuccessful representations the association considered‘that the situation had become so grave that the only course left open was to. present the facts .to the public .dispassionately and free from party pplitigs. ‘‘We have organised public meetings in every electorate, and in each case the sitting member of Parliament has been invited to attend. The publicity gained has in itself shown the soundness of the steps taken during the last few months.” “Real Discontent’ * Mr Bull emphasised that during the last 18 months the association’s executive had been under heavy pressure from branches to take the matter up publicly. While the association had been reluctant to go into the public arena it had behind it a very real discontent with the situation that pervaded the whole rank and file of the association’s 3000-odd members. “Our experience has been that Parliament has always discussed education topics with an open mind, in general almost completely free from any party line,” Mr Bull added. “The last thing our association would want would be to bring the matter to party political level. “We felt, though, that it is a matter of such vital concern to the country, and has been allowed to drift so far, that the time is overdue when the public should be told how precarious the shortage of secondary school teachers is,” said Mr Bull.