Teachers Repeat Calls For Direct Action

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32361, 29 July 1970, Page 32

Teachers Repeat Calls For Direct Action

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, July 28.

The National Union of Teachers viewed with concern last night’s meeting of teachers’ groups with the Minister of Education (Mr Taiboys) and would continue to press for direct action, the union’s president (Mr B. Brooks) said yesterday.

“It is not irresponsible to continue to take direct action; it is irresponsible to continue under present conditions,” he said. “Only direct action by all levels of the teaching service will bring home to the parents the reality of educational conditions.”

ship, and that Mr Hamill's performance on the “Gallery" programme was incompetent, his defence of teachers inadequate, and his attitude unjustifiably deferential at the meeting with Mr Taiboys last night

Mr Brooks said that it should be clear to the officers of the Educational Institute and the Post-Primary Teachers’ Association that teachers were not satisfied with the leadership of these bodies and, moreover, that the Minister should be well aware that this dissatisfaction would not be dispelled by assurances that all was well.

proach in private,” Mr Piper said. “He is obviously climbing down with the leadership of the P.P.T.A. in private, but whether he will retract some of his public statements on education remains to be seen.” Public “Fed Up” ’ Militancy and petulance had j no place in the teachers’ drive j for better wages, the secre- , tary of the Gisborne Head- > masters’ Association (Mr J. ] M. White) said today when f giving bis personal view on t unrest among teachers. “Teachers have to command respect, and they are 1 not going to do this by being ) militant,” he said. > He said that they would get ; much more sympathy from a the public if they continued 1 to go about it more sensibly, i by negotiations. s “I feel that many people t are sympathetic towards the I teachers, but are beginning to get fed up with strikes and the like by people wanting more pay or better conditions, or both,” Mr White f said. i “While I am fully in accord r with the fact that the teach- - ers’ salary scale is completely out of keeping with those of . other professions, I abhore t the present trend towards 1 militant action.” ’ No Confidence s Two-thirds of the member- - ship of the Post-Primary Teachers’ Association at the > Hamilton Teachers* College s today called on the associaf tion's national president (Mr s E. F. Hamill) and secretary 1 (Mr P. W. Boag) to resign. The members passed a vote i of no confidence in both the - officers, claiming that they • had failed to show firm leader-

Any militant action considered by the Post-Primary Teachers* Association as a result of the recent controversy with the Minister of Education (Mr Taiboys) would have the “whole-hearted” support of the association's members at the Christchurch Girls' High School, the school branch of the association said last evening. In a statement the branch said that it wished to allay any suspicion that women teachers were standing apart during the controversy. "We deplore the derogatory implications made by Mr Talboys during the recent television interview, and seek a public retraction and apology from him,” the statement said. At a meeting of the Burnside High School branch of the P.P.T.A. it was alleged that neither the Government nor the Department of Education had provided any substantial public assurance that there would be a major revaluation of the teaching profession or a major increase in finance to improve the quality of education. The president of the Canterbury branch of the PostPrimary Teachers’ Association (Mr D. J. R. Baird) said last evening that a special meeting of the branch today would consider 27 remits connected with the attitude of the Minister of Education and the Government towards secondary education. King In N.Z. (N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, July 28. King Taufa'ahau Topou IV of Tonga and Queen Mata’aho arrived by air in Auckland today.

The Seddon High School branch of the Post-Primary Teachers’ Association today asked the Auckland regional P.P.T.A. management committee to call a regional stopwork meeting within two The Auckland P.P/T.A. regional chairman (Mr R. Hodge) said he was made no happier by an assurance last night that the Education Services Committee, which will consider the salary claim, would hold its first formal meeting on August 14, three weeks earlier than provided under the statutes. The formal meeting planned for August 14 was not fresh news, Mr Hodge said. “Auckland members regard the delay as quite intolerable," he said. “Although an assurance was also given that the committee would work on the claim (lodged on July 2) with all possible speed before that date, the Auckland regional P.P.T.A. management committee makes an urgent request for the committee to meet by August 1.” Board’s View The Northcote College board of governors, Auckland, today sent a telegram to Mr Taiboys saying that it supported staff members in tomorrow's planned stop-work meeting, and urged him to begin a major re-evaluation of the status of the teaching profession. The board said that it supported the staff in view of four things: growing dissatisfaction among secondary teachers with the present salary claims, the alarming number of teachers leaving the profession, the difficulty experienced by many boards of governors in securing fully qualified permanent staff, and the consequent difficulty of maintaining satisfactory standards of teaching.

over Waikato are expected to attend the meeting. Members of the delegation of high school teachers from Rotorua and Tauranga who met the Minister outside the National Party conference in Rotorua, yesterday said they gained the impression that he was not prepared to discuss his portfolio. However, Mr Taiboys did meet a deputation of 30 teachers later, and spoke to them for over an hour. The press was not allowed to be present, but it is believed that the Minister told the teachers that it would be the last occasion he would talk to them if they stopped work. Answers Wanted The Wellington region of the P.P.T.A. will hold an emergency meeting tomorrow night to consider the situation. The chairman (Mr L. B. Piper) said this morning that teachers were still upset and would consider future action. It was clear that Mr Taiboys was backing down, but he still had to answer some specific questions on holidays and salaries.

‘ Mr Piper said he had been very annoyed at Mr Talboys’s attitude towards Bay of Plenty teachers outside the National Party conference in Rotorua yesterday. “He is prepared to show a tough, nasty attitude in public, but to adopt a soft ap-

Meeting Sought Although their mood may have cooled after last night’s assurances by the Minister of Education (Mr Taiboys), Waikato teachers today pressed on with their plans for a meeting with the Minister in Hamilton on Friday. Several hundred teachers from all