STAFFING POST-PRIMARY SCHOOLS

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29278, 9 August 1960, Page 12

STAFFING POST-PRIMARY SCHOOLS

Interim Report By Commission (New Zealand WELLINGTON, August 8. At least 1000 more post-primary teachers will be needed in 1961 if the critical shortage facing the New Zealand teaching profession is to be alleviated.

. . ■ f Giving this as one of its major findings, the Commission on Education in its interim report on post-primary staffing and recruitment urged an intensification of recruitment of at least 200 teachers annually in 1961 and 1962 from the United Kingdom.

It recommends that a recruitment officer be based in London for that period, and that the scope of his work be broadened to include Holland, Denmark, Eire, and even, perhaps, South Africa.

The commission also favours the provision of more rental houses for teachers obtained from overseas and expatriate teachers attracted back to New Zealand, and transfer of superannuation benefits to New Zealand.

The report, released today by the Minister of Education (Mr Skoglund) contains 18 recommendations. “The Government will now give immediate consideration to the commission’s recommendations,” said Mr Skoglund, Who added that he had asked for the report to be given priority. The commission, headed by Sir George Currie, Vice-Chancellor of the University of New Zealand, was constituted in February to consider the system of primary, post-primary, and technical education in New Zealand and its present and future needs. A factor to emerge from the analysis. of present post-primary staffing is that the hard core of shortage at the end of 1960 will be 650 teachers, the report says. Although many positions continue to be filled with temporary teachers, actual vacancies will probably rise to more than 200 by the end of this year, and increase by a further 185 during 1961. “True Magnitude” “When it is considered that the number of new teachers entering the service in 1958 and 1959 was fewer than 600, and that in 1960 the intake has been with difficulty raised to 735 the true magnitude of the problem wil be understood,” the report says. It says that the effect of enlisting 1050 teachers in 1961, if it can be achieved, will be considerable, but should not be overestimated. The shortage would then fall to 585 at the end of the year. The position in the schools would then be approximately what it was in 1959, which was a year of severe shortage. A similar recruiting effort would be required in 1962, otherwise the shortage would still amount to 547 positions at the end of that year. If as many as 300 additional teachers from outside present planned sources can be recruited for each of the years 1961 and 1962 there is good hope that the worst of the post-primary shortage will' be over by 1964. Special Problems “But the commission does not wish to be misunderstood on this point,” says the report. “It is not predicting that all problems of recruitment, such as the recruitment of women, or teachers of special subjects, as teachers for particular areas, are likely to be solved by ’ this date. “These are special problems, and have other roots from which the over-all shortage arises, and will be the last effects of shortage to disappear.” The commission estimates that post-primary schools will have to provide as many new places between 1958 and 1965 as they, provided during the previous 14 years, and that the total postprimary schoool rolls in 1965 will be three times as great as in 1944 Recognising that there is no surplus of graduates in the New Zealand community which may be easily drawn into teaching, the commission makes its. opening recommendations on overseas recruitment. To assist in attaining the annual target figure of 200 overseas recruitments, the commission recommends that a third type be added in addition to the class A (trained teachers) and class B (untrained graduates given training for a term in New Zealand schools but who do not qualify for a teacher’s certificate). Graduates accepting an appointment of this type would be admitted to _ the division C course of training. They would receive the normal allowance paid to students in this course, and would be required to teach in New Zealand for three years. Mobile Reserve

The commission also recommends that during the next two emergency years applications be invited from single men or women, qualified in mathematics £nd science, to join a post-primary mobile reserve.

I Those accepted would have re- . turn fares paid to New Zealand , at tourist airline rates, and would , receive salary assessed in the normal manner according to qualifications, with a guaranteed minimum of £lOOO per annum: This scheme also suggests the commission, should not be limited to the United Kingdom. While reserving the question of revaluation of salaries for its final report, the commission recommends improvements in the qualification allowances paid to i teachers, and increases in the number of units of responsibility for sixth-form teaching. The opinion is held that the amount paid as an allowance to teachers with thb highest qualifications should be increased substantially, and that the highest th S_l ou . r Qualification groups (for first-class and second-class honours) should not be eliminated above the basic scales. Xt is

recommended that these teachers be included as a separate group as far as the top of scale V. New Type Of Post The commission urges the establishment in the post-primary service of a new type of position, to be called a position of minor responsibility, for teachers of core subjects with special qualifications for the teaching of slow learners. Appointees to these positions should be required to teach not less than one half nor more than two-thirds of their time in forms of low academic attainment. These appointees from the primary service should also be given the option of being graded by primary as well as post-primary inspectors. Since 1953 the Education Department has awarded third-year studentships in university studies to a selected group of division A students —there are more than 50 this year—rand the commission is recommending that for each of the next two years the present studentship be limited to 12 awards, and that other suitable division A students be offered a deferred studentship. Students accepting a deferred studentship would be required to take an appointment in a post-primary school two years before taking up their award. Instead of receiving the salary of a probationary assistant, they would be paid scale one salary their two years of teaching, which would advance them to the third step in their second year. They would carry this salary with them when they became full-time students of the university. Other Proposals The commission also recommends: (1) A limited number of deterred studentships at the university, on the same terms as the present study leave awards, be made available to suitably qualified primary teachers, conditional on their teaching first tor two years in the post-primary service. (2) As a condition of the operation of the schemes for posts of minor responsibility and deferred studentships, the Government take steps in 1961 to recruit 100 primary teachers from the United Kingdom. (3) For 1961 and 1962 a shortened course of training for division U students in the final year of their studentship. (4) Amending regulations empowering the Director of Education to halt recruits from industry and commerce at their initial salary until their teaching service entitles them to proceed higher in the scale. (5) Urgent consideration to salaries of teachers in the senior technical service. (6) The allowance for members of the mobile reserve for primary and post-primary teachers be increased to £l5O per annum, and that permanent, as well as relieving teachers, be eligible to join the reserve. Mathematics, Science To overcome a chronic shortage of teachers of mathematics and science and in homecraft subjects, other recommendations urge: (1) Appealing to all employers of mathematicians and scientists to make members of their staffs available for part-time teaching of advanced science and mathematics in neighbouring post-pri-mary schools. (2) Addressing a similar appeal to university students in mathematics and sciences, as they complete their course, asking them to teach ■in post-primary s S ho „ o ,’Lj or one y ear at a salary of £lOOO per annum. ’ 3 ?;.£n attempt be made to establish a training course of homecraft subjects for mature women at a teachers’ training college along the lines of the former division T course. (4) Instituting training in homecraft subjects by means of correspondence and. block courses for women not available for a teachers training course. Ancillary Staff A need for ancillary staff to take over routine work in schools is seen by the commission, which considers the library assistant scheme as “no more than a first step towards a really efficient organisation of post-primary libraries.” To relieve teachers of “harassing non-teaching duties” the commission recommends that departmental consideration be gwen to the appointment of the following types of staff:— (a) workshop maintenance staffs, particularly in technical colleges; (b) nursing aids, particularly in girls’ schools; and (c) laboratory technicians and attendants. commission also advocates that, where schools very close to * pother are experiencing staff shortages, efforts should be made to consolidate their staffs-at sixth form level.

Consolidation of small district high schools, with a standing committee to make recommendations to the Minister of Education, is also urged.

To solve some of the problems of the country service the commission would like to see money made available to local boards to build or buy rental houses for teachers.

In-Service Training Many post-primary teachers are in need of professional help, whether it is in the content of the subjects they are teaching or in the methods of teaching and classroom management, the report says.

While “hesitating to recommend the removal of senior teachers from the classroom even for such an urgent task as in-service training.” the commission suggests the best prospect of obtaining a corps of officers familiar with the problems involved is to call on the services of the field inspectors and post-primary inspectorate. On this division the report recommends:— (1) Immediate conversion of the former school for the deaf at Titirangi, Auckland, into a permanent headquarters for in-service training. (2) Co-ordination and extensions of the present provisions for in-service training. (3) Regular, four-week summer courses, with mathematics and sciences given priority, to enable teachers either to refurnish or to increase their knowledge of the subjects they teach. School Bursaries

The commission urges . that wider scope be given to secondary school bursaries by making them available to pupils who, though at accrediting schools, are not able to obtain the course of study they need.

Also to encourage potential teachers, the report recommends that a limited number of merit bursaries, worth £lOO per annum', be awarded at the end of the fifthform year for two years of sixthform study, and that they be available only to country pupils, including but not restricted to pupils in district high schools. The commission considers the post-primary service is passing through a period of transition into a “mainly planned” state. “A measure of recruitment from unplanned sources will always no doubt taUe place, but most postprimary teachers from now on will have to come from planned intakes,” says the report. “How far a bonded bursary such as the post-primary teacher studentship is necessary to secure this is a matter we leave for future consideration.

“Considerable development and co-ordination of statistical inquiry will be needed, and in particular a more refined analysis of subject recruitment in arts and sciences.”

The commission makes a recommendation to this effect, and also urges that a system be introduced whereby boards report their staff position to the Education Department more frequently.