Schools’ Council’s Views Held Inaccurate

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30454, 30 May 1964, Page 18

Schools’ Council’s Views Held Inaccurate

Comments about appointments to post-primary school staffs made by members of the Christchurch Post-Primary Schools’ Council contained a member of inaccuracies, Mr W. J. Byrne, president of the West Coast region of the New Zealand Post-Primary Teachers’ Association said in Greymouth.

Mr Byrne said that the Chris to hurch comments were the latest of several which resulted from a statement of his about practices “creeping into the procedure for making appointment to senior positions in post-primary schools, particularly in the Christchurch area.” “My original statement contained no reference whatsoever to the council. I have nothing but admiration for this group of private citizens who give so much of their own time to assisting education in the Canterbury area. “The often-repeated allegation that appointments cannot be made since there are no vacancies on the staff of the school concerned is, in some cases at least, a convenient fiction. This is evidenced by the fact that at least two Christchurch schools which are ‘unable to make an appointment to a senior position’ are at this moment advertising for additional staff. “Asked to Withdraw” “Teachers have been asked to withdraw. Letters requesting such withdrawals have been forwarded to the Minister of Education. “The principal of the Christchurch Girls’ High School is reported to have answered the charges by saying ‘more than a quarter of the positions of responsibility advertised were made by reshuffling staff.’ This is exactly what we are objecting to. Principals have no right to refuse applications from more highly-graded outsiders so that they can offer favours to ‘favourite sons’ on their

staff even though their grading is lower than that of the other applicant. “A member of the Post Primary Schools Council alleges that the country teacher is blocking the promotion of town teachers. Surely the whole situation has arisen because the exact opposite is the case. “The Post-Primary Schools Council is indirectly implicated in one way only. The secretary of the council is also secretary of the individual school boards. In fact, principals with whom I have spoken since the original statement claim this it is the secretary who is responsible for the other two complaints in the original statement. Firstly, applications were not being

acknowledged when they were received and secondly, applicants were not being advised of the name of the appointee when appointments were made. “Not Political Football” “Alarm has been expressed that this matter should become a political football. Full support has been received from the local member of Parliament (Mr P. Blanchfield) and from the Minister of Education and his department so that the ‘political football’ danger does not exist. “Letters from Mr Halligan are signed ‘secretary of Christchurch Post-Primary Schools Council’ even when he is acting on behalf of an individual board.”