High Schools Seek Staff Increase

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30855, 14 September 1965, Page 18

High Schools Seek Staff Increase

A 20 per cent increase in staffing for secondary schools, involving 1200 additional teachers, is being sought by the New Zealand Post-primary Teachers’ Association. It says such an increase would have to be made over a period.

“To argue that the existing teacher short, age prevents action is to postpone action indefinitely and condemn secondary school pupils to an inadequate education,” says the association’s journal.

The journal says:— "The existing schedules have remained almost unchanged since 1948, and those who have taught in the classroom since that time are most aware of the extent of the changes which have taken place. Changes in teaching methods, including the abandonment of the ‘single textbook approach,’ the increase in dividual written work at senior level, the expansion in the scope of the responsibllies of heads of departments, the demands for remedial reading and counselling services the population explosion in sixth-form numbeta (more than doubled in the last 10 vears), the inadequate education which is offered at each end of the intellectual scale to the brightest pupils and to the slow learners—all these factors cry out for the replacement of obsolete staffing allowances with an improved system which will enable the community to receive a better return for the money it has invested in secondary education. “Other sectors of education have received recognition of their needs. The universities have an extensive building programme, as have the technical institutes, whose formation recognises changes in education; primary education has received its three-year training programme and smal-

ler classes. The P.P.T.A. looks to the Minister and the department to provide in a similar manner for the advancement of secondary education. “The P.P.T.A. has asked the Minister and department, first, that the need for more liberal staffing be acknowledged in principle; second, that our detailed proposals become the basis for negotiations to establish the blueprint for the future needs of secondary education. The schedules for smaller classes in primary schools were drafted and approved long before they came in operation so there is precedent fo rthis action. Finally the P.P.T.A. has asked for an immediate start to be made to implement these proposals.”