STOCK-PILING TEACHERS

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31542, 2 December 1967, Page 25

STOCK-PILING TEACHERS

A modest start on “stock-piling? teachers against the year 1969 when no primary trainees will be available from Teachers’ Colleges, because of three-year training, has been made by the Canterbury Education Board. Somehow it will have to make good the places of more than 300 newly-trained probationary assistants who would normally be available.

Three-year training began in Christchurch this year. This year’s intake under the former two-year college programme would have “passed out” at the end of next year but will now remain until the end of 1969. This situation arose earlier in Dunedin which will have no probationary assistance to offer for next year. To cushion these effects an elaborate system of placement in which there is a good degree of free choice has begun. Newly-trained assistants are first invited to nominate the district in which they would like their first school positions. In Canterbury recently all but about a dozen succeeded in their first choice of district. Most wanted to stay in this area, others wanted^to be near home elsewhere, and others also chose distant districts for domestic reasons. With the district settled, the teachers were invited to nominate a preference of three schools. In most cases a good deal of satisfaction was achieved. One inspector has been occupied almost the whole year, counselling, visiting, and placing these outgoing students. Most were informed of their placements early in the third term and have been able to visit these schools, study local programmes, and meet the class they will take next year Some have been able to spend a whole “section” (observation period) from Teachers' College at their chosen school. Bonded teachers who have

not secured permanent positions have also been placed in a similar fashion. Some have gone to schools with vacancies and some have been appointed to schools where rapid growth indicates more vacancies next year. In anticipation of the 1969 problem, the Canterbury Education Board and the Education Department have also been recruiting and giving refresher courses to former teachers (chiefly married women now freer of family responsibilities) who will be available as required. This scheme will be extended next year. One problem with these married women is that they like jobs close to home. “We 'could possibly staff most of the schools of Christchurch with them but this would mean displacing regular teachers for whom this is a life-time career,” one official said.

Wherever possible under the regulations, the Education Department is appointing extra staff to be held as a buffer against the 1969 situation. In the meantime this has meant a temporary bonus in many areas with a reduction in the size of classes which is the Education Department’s second priority after three-year training of teachers.