Shortage Of Teachers And “Reluctant Learners'”

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29002, 17 September 1959, Page 12

Shortage Of Teachers And “Reluctant Learners'”

"How should we organise our school system so that each child benefits to the maximum extent; and how do we ensure an adequate supply of suitably qualified and well trained teachers for each stage?” asks the president of the Post-primary Teachers’ Association (Mr W. R. Edwards) in a further statement on “reluctant learners.” Mr Edwards .says “all sorts of things" could be done about the first question if the second question was fully answered. “But the unfortunate fact is that we have not enough post-primary teachers." he says. “I said that there were now some 15,000 more pupils in our post-primary schools than we had permanent and well-qualified teachers to cope with and that the position would deteriorate further. This is the salient hard fact. A reasonable deduction, therefore, is that we are within measurable distance of. if we have not already reached, the stage where the schools cannot cater adequately for the pupils offering. Who is now to suffer? This is the question which must be answered. Already many principals are debating the closing of school rolls at the point where enrolments exceed the numbers they have staff to deal with. In many schools courses are having to be jettisoned or modified because of staff shortages," the statement says. “Beating The Air”

“It seems to me to be beating the air, so far as this particular problem is concerned, to talk about ideal courses, the employment of psychologists for problem pupils, the changing of various regulations and so forth, however desirable these things may be in the whole general context. Such matters certainly need due and careful consideration for the sake of the pupils; equally, we must plan for the time \ hen there will be an adequate supply of teachers But I cannot see that psychoanalysis-. or discussion of courses, is going to help the small school that has a shortage of five permanent teachers in a staff of 12, or the girls’ school where fewer than half the teachers are permanently appointed and where only about one out of five posts of responsibility is filled. “Whatever we may decide to do to meet such situations as these, let us at least avoid pious platitudes. The president of the Secondary Schools Boards’ Association who first opened the

present discussion is well aware, as is my association, of the desperate position in many postprimary schools. He drew attention to the presence of a small percentage of pupils—less than 1 per cent.—who are, whatever the reasons may be, responsible for the wastage of precious teaching strength and. in fact, constitute an actual bar to recruitment so far as women teachers are concerned. Neither he nor I referred in this connexion to the honest ‘slow learner.’ who deserves—and receives—as much of our best effort as does the more able pupil. We pointed to the small number, often quite capable, who actively resist every endeavour to help them. For these pupils ‘reluctant learner’ is a euphemism.” Mr Edwards says.