Student Teacher Hardship Claim

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32323, 15 June 1970, Page 13

Student Teacher Hardship Claim

Student teachers may boy- I cott lectures for a day later t | this term if they cannot gel 1 satisfaction in their claims I ! for an improvement in the i Education Department’? < ; method of paying allowances i Mr B. S. Taylor, president i of the student teacher branch of the Christchurch Teachers' I College secondary division of ; the Post Primary Teachers' ; Association, said that at a 1 branch meeting on Friday, i grave dissatisfaction had been expressed that March teach- 1 ing section allowances had 1 not been paid by the department. : “This has involved a number of teacher trainees in serious financial hardship in undertaking their second 1 ' term section, starting on Monday,” he said. “The meeting also urged that section allowances be fixed at a more realistic level.” Mr Taylor said that married trainees faced particulai difficulties in accepting postings outside Christchurch, as many of them had to main- ' tain a home in the city as , well as pay board, travel and incidental payments at the place of their posting. He quoted one case in which a married graduate i student got a net salary of $37.50 a week. His expenses; , in Christchurch were $l4 a| week for rent and $lO for

household expenses. On section, he was expected to pay $l2 a week for board and travel, of which the department refunded $7 a week. Over a four-week period, the man would be $2O out of pocket. A single trainee paid $l6 to keep a flat in Christchurch and for his location board and travel, and on the $7 a week refund, would be $45 a month out of pocket. Mr Taylor said the meeting wanted the department to speedily reform its allowance payment procedures, and for trainees to be paid through the college before they went on location rather than have i all allowances paid through a computer in Wellington. Strikes In Iceland The first break in a two.week wave of strikes by nearly 20,000 workers throughout Iceland has come with the return to work by dairy technicians. Members of 39 unions, however, are still demanding wage increases of up to 25 per cent and are refusing to go back to their jobs. Unions are urging wage increases because of an exceptionally good fishing season for Iceland.— Reykjavik, June 14.