Return To Teaching

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30398, 24 March 1964, Page 15

Return To Teaching

(N.Z. Press Association) DUNEDIN, March 22. The shortage of teachers throughout New Zealand was being considerably eased by the return to schools of a significant number of married women teachers.

Last year more than 250 returned to teaching, the Minister of Education (Mr Kinsella) told the School Committees Federation annual conference in Dunedin on Saturday. “They have come back into the service at a time when the need for them is greatest,” Mr Kinsella said.

Staffing problems would be smaller if newly certified teachers were serving in permanent positions. “Many of them are only relieving in positions that really call for a permanent teacher and others are not teaching at all until they can find positions in the city near their homes,” he said. As a result, 475 of the positions advertised by the education boards were filled only by relieving teachers. Vacancies most difficult to fill were in country areas and in rapidly expanding city suburbs.

The main cause for optimism over the teacher position was that the number of teachers gaining teaching certificates would continue to rise each year. 2036 Students This year the eight teachers’ colleges among them took in 2036 students who intended to enter the primary teaching

service. This was a record and augered well for the future, Mr Kinsella said. The number compared very favourably with the intake last year of 1998, he said. The results of the recruiting effort this year were also most encouraging in spite of the increased entry standard, endorsed school certificate or its equivalent. The Government’s first priority among the major objectives in primary education was to improve and strengthen the course of training given to teachers’ college students. The first step in strengthening the course was to increase the standard of entry to teachers’ college this year. With the entrance requirement raised to sixth form level he looked forward confidently to a time when a great majority would have university entrance.

“Indeed, the figure this year is just over 50 per cent and I am sure this proportion will increase steadily over the next few years,” Mr Kinsella said. Mr Kinsella said he ex-

pected to receive the first report from the national advisory council on the training of teachers in the very near future. The council had met several times and he believed the aspect they were dealing with first was the introduction of longer teacher training courses and the most suitable locations for future colleges. Increased Space

The Minister explained that teachers’ college space would have to be increased to cater for the greater number of students caused by the longer training term. Mr Kinsella mentioned curricula developments and said recent progress in the field in New Zealand was only part of a world movement to reassess what is taught in schools, and to introduce where desirable new methods and equipment. Overseas development were being watched carefully because other countries were spending vast sums on education research and New Zealand had to be prepared to introduce the best developments into its own schools.