POST PRIMARY TEACHING

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28481, 10 January 1958, Page 15

POST PRIMARY TEACHING

I>OST-primary teachers * usually specialise in individual subjects or in a small group of subjects. It is preferable that students wishing to qualify as postprimary teachers should have two years in the sixth form of a post-primary school. This is follqwed by three to five years at a university, and a one year post-graduate course in a teachers’ college.

Generous financial help is available to a young man or woman wishing to prepare for postprimary teaching. Usually this is provided through a post-primary teacher’s studentship. The student must have University Entrance at the time of application, and must be not less t.*an 16 years of age at the end of the year in which application is made. Successful applicants are attached to a teachers’ college as Division U students, and at once become members of the teaching profession.

From three to five years later, when they have completed their university course, they spend a year at either Auckland or Christchurch Teachers’ College, where they receive the professional training which will equip them to take their place as members of the staff of a post-primary school. During each of the first two years of university work they are paid an allowance of £205 a year. For each of the next two years this is increased to £3lO. During the year in Teachers’ College the allowance paid is at the rate of £570 for men, and £495 for women.

Holders of post-primary teacher studentships are required to give

a year of teaching service for each year’s allowance they have received while doing full time university study. Studentships are available for degree courses in arts, science, commerce, agriculture and home science, or for diploma courses in home science, physical education and fine arts, etc. In addition to the studentship allowances university fees are paid for all approved courses. University Courses In some cases pupils leaving school may wish to go to university, but may not have made up their minds about teaching, and are. therefore, unable to commit themselves to the conditions of a post-primary teacher’s studentship. In such cases use may be made, if eligible, of either an Entrance Bursary or a Higher School Certificate Bursary, although neither is as valuable as a post-primary teacher’s studentship. The Entrance Bursary provides half university fees until the equipment of three units has been obtained, and thereafter full

fees. The Higher School Certificate Bursary provides full university fees for a part-time student, and fees together with £4O a year allowance for full-time students.

An additional £5O a year boarding allowance is paid to eligible full-time students. Both bursaries are tenable for four years. If, after holding either bursary for either a year or two years a student decides he would now like to become a post-primary teacher, he may apply for a post-primary studentship. Teachers of commercial subjects may qualify either by taking a degree course in commerce, or, if they are widely experienced in office work, by taking a special course for commercial teachers at the Wellington Technical College. Boys with considerable practical ability may wish to become woodwork or metalwork teachers. The first requirement is a sdund educational background, preferably to School Certificate standard: This should be followed by an apprenticeship, and some experience as a journeyman in some branch of the woodwork or metalwork trades. There then

follows a year’s course of training at either Auckland or Christchurch Teachers’ College. Woodwork and metalwork teachers, and commercial teachers trained at the Wellington Technical College, are paid during training a salary of £570, plus marriage allowance where applicable. Pupils Interested In a post-pri-mary teaching fareer should discuss the matter with their parents, teachers, and careers adviser. They should seek guidance in the post-primary course that will best fit them for the kind of teaching in which they are most interested, and for which they are best fitted, and they should plan to remain at school long enough to get an adequate background of general education. At the proper time, usually during August, they - should apply, for either a post-primary teachers' studentship or a bursary through which to proceed to a degree or diploma, or for admission to the appropriate teachers’ college course. Selection

Applicants are interviewed by a selection committee, and selections are made on the basis of the school principal’s reports and the student's academic and other records, and the impressions of the interviewing committee. Holders of studentships are given every help to make the best possible use of their opportunities, and they work under the direction of a member of the college staff whose sole duty it is to advise on courses, assist in securing satisfactory study facilities, and generally give the kind of guidance so often needed when students are first thrown on their own resources.

Forms of application are available from the local Education Board, or from the Department of Education, Wellington.