Support For N.Z.E.I.

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32381, 21 August 1970, Page 26

Support For N.Z.E.I.

A strong expression of solidarity with the Educational Institute in its present salary claims has been made by the Canterbury region of the PostPrimary Association, representing more than 750 secondary school teachers.

This expression of support is significant, because criticism has been made in recent weeks of the manner in which both groups have tended to avoid the opportunity to present a combined front on their requests for higher salaries.

It is believed that a similar expression of support may be forthcoming from the annual conference of the PostPrimary Teachers' Association, which will begin in Wellington next Wednesday. “While for a number of reasons we cannot at the moment combine with the Educational Institute to present a case for the re-evalua-tion of teachers* salaries, we think that it should be realised that our two organisations work on much closer terms than many people realise, or perhaps care to admit,*’ the president of the Canterbury region of the P.P.T.A. (Mr D. R. J. Baird) said last evening.

“We feel that members of the Educational Institute suffer from the same, or similar, difficulties and frustrations as our members do, that their salaries are considerably below a reasonable level, and that their claim is an eminently sound and fair one,” Mr Baird said. “We therefore want to state publicly that because we sympathise with the N.Z.E.I. in its special problems we hope that its meeting in Wellington this week-end will* be a profitable one which will enable the primary teachers to establish beyond doubt the merits of their claim that unless their requests are met the children of this country will suffer further unnecessary educational deprivation.” Mr Baird will lead a regional delegation of six at the P.P.T.A. conference, at which Mr J. D. Murdoch, of Cashmere High School, will be sworn in as the next national president of the association, a position he will hold in Wellington from the beginning of next year. MEETING TODAY

The president of the Educational Institute (Mr H. M. Hunter) said last night that he hoped tomorrow’s meeting

between the institute and the Education Service Committee would give some clear indication mat the committee was prepared to make a more realistic offer towards the primary teachers’ pay claim, says a Press Association report from Wellington. “We hope the committee will see the problem for what it really is—a problem related to the quality of education children receive, and an urgent need to attract more men into the teaching service,” Mr Hunter said. Mr Hunter said the statement made on television on Wednesday night by the Minister of Education (Mr Taiboys), that negotiations had not really taken place on primary teachers’ salaries, was misleading. “Negotiations have been taking place since March 19,” ■ he said. The negotiations ' were broken off nearly three weeks ago. The president of the New ! Zealand Parent-Teacher Associations (Mr R. Hamilton), t commenting on Mr Talboys’s

statement that s2o9m was spent on education last year, said it appeared that this year’s Government expenditure was proportionately 1J per cent lower. “It would seem that Mr Muldoon is the Minister of Education, because most ad-

vancements in education depend on finance,” Mr Hamilton said.