Auckland Teachers Averse To Saturday School Sport

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31985, 12 May 1969, Page 1

Auckland Teachers Averse To Saturday School Sport

(New Zealand Pres* Association)

AUCKLAND, May IL Auckland post-primary school-teachers want to stop organising pupils in Saturday sport.

They also recommend —the move was made at a meeting on Saturday—that headmasters withdraw all school teams from the present Saturday sports organisations.

The meeting was told by several speakers that headmasters pressured teachers into conducting games on Saturday. One teacher said that because of his duties regarding school teams he had seen his son play in only one cricket match.

Mr C. R. Milne, of WestLake.Boys’ High School said that teachers wanted five days teaching and not six. “If we do a good job in the classroom this should be enough. We don’t want a threat of someone saying, ’lf you don’t want to take Saturday sport you are not a good teacher’,” he said. He said the week-end was the only time for teachers to see their families. “I think it utterly wrong that young teachers should be expected to take sport whether they want to or not. We want this to be a voluntary thing,” he said. A Seddon Memorial Tech-

nical College spokesman said the Saturday competition had started off as a servant but was now the master. “We have reached the stage where pupils feel they are being forced to take part,” he said. Mr M. W. Cliffe, of Takapuna Grammar School, said secondary school sport must go on. i He said unless they had some alternative to Saturday ' sport, such as a Wednesday organisation, secondary school : sport would disappear altogether. During the discussions, Mr : C. A. Percy, the regional i chairman, explained it was the national policy of the asso- 1 elation for teacher partieipa- i tion in Saturday morning i sport to be voluntary. ' The South CanterburyNorth Otago region of the P.P.T.A. was not prepared to support a motion calling for 1 a ban on the organisation of I Saturday, sport when the issue • was'last discussed in 19fifi, ac- 1 cording to a Press Associa- s tion message from Timarti. 1 Giving this information tonight the president (Mr O. D: 1 Smith, Timaru) said he could 1 not answer for his region this > year. The annual conference < is to he held at the end of this month, when the national : president (Mr C. B. Newen- ; ham, of Wellington) will ad- < dress members.

“Some of our members do not like having to be responsible for Saturday sport, and feel they should be paid or recompensed in some fashion,” said Mr Smith. “On the other hand, there are teachers who are quite happy to fill this role by giving their time in the same way as other persons do for clubs. “It’s really a matter of individual choice in our region—there’s no compulsion,” said Mr Smith. “I don’t think there is as much Saturday sport organised by teachers as there was, say, 10 or 20 years ago.” Mr Smith said the issue was one aspect of the continuing shortage of teachers that was imposing even greater strain on teachers. Mr I. D. Leggat, the chairman of the Canterbury region of the Post-Primary Teachers’ Association, commenting on the Auckland move, said it,was an understandable decision to take. “We can understand this problem occurring in Auckland even though sueb action is probably not necessary in Christchurch,” he said. Mr Leggat said the organisation of secondary school sports in the two cities was different. In Christchurch most school teams played

sport on Wednesday, afternoons, in Auckland they did not have mid-week sport.' Most sport in Auckland was played on Saturday and this involved teachers taking pupils outside the school week. Because Auckland was large and schools were scattered, taking pupils to sports fixtures could be time-consum-ing, he said. Mr Leggat said the staffing situation in secondary schools throughout New Zealand was difficult, and in Auckland it was critical. Christchurch was more fortunate. Many secondary schools were under pressure caused by staffing difficulties; in these circumstances extra work oh Saturdays could become unbearable.