Teachers Deserve Rise, Says M.P.

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32385, 26 August 1970, Page 14

Teachers Deserve Rise, Says M.P.

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, August 25. Teachers deserved a salary increase, and a solution to their pay claims would be reached within the next two or three weeks, Parliament was told tonight.

Mr D. A. Highet (Nat., Remuera) said during debate on Education Department estimates of expenditure that teachers’ pay claims were not too far away from a reasonable figure. But he appealed for patience. “If you must act against what you consider to be injustices, do it with dignity and in keeping with the position you hold in the community,” he said. “This Government will never sub mit to threats.”

Earlier in the debate the Minister of Finance (Mr Muldoon) also warned that no settlements in the field of salaries would be made by the Government under threat ot direct action. But Mr S. A. Whitehead (Lab., Nelson) said teachers were sick and tired of taking constitutional methods and making no progress. The Minister of Education (Mr Taiboys), declining to be drawn too deeply into the

question of salaries during the debate, said teachers' claims would be dealt with as quickly as possible. Referring No recent statements about the number of men teaching in primary schools he said that while there had been only 815 male primary teacher trainees in 1960, there were 1467 this year. “We are making progress, although I admit it’s not enough yet,” he said. The Opposition’s education spokesman (Mr P. A. Amos,

Manurewa), said that never before had New Zealand seen such turmoil in education. There had been anger in the past but nothing to match today’s situation. The s2m for extra building announced by Mr Taiboys, at the week-end would do little to help the position. Parents were crying out at the cramped and inadequate conditions of prefabricated classrooms. Education boards feared they would not be able to reach the one to 35 teacherpupil ratio by 1975 because there were insufficient students coming into the teaching profession. The Auckland and South Auckland Education Boards feared they would not be able to fill their quotas for training college this year. Sir Leslie Munro (Nat, Hamilton West) said the taxpayer was rightly spending a great deal of money on education. The education vote was now $227m.

“Where do you get increased money from?” he asked. “You either increase tax or reduce expenditure." Mr Taiboys said it had already been announced that education boards would get $5.2m more than the allocation last year for building programmes.

Mr C. J. Moyle (Lab., Mangere) said the claim by the Minister that the allocation for buildings had been increased by $5.2m had to be looked at alongside the fact that building costs had risen by as much as 15 per cent in recent months and were continuing to rise. Mr E. S. F. Holland (Nat, Riccarton) admitted that from his own discussions in Canterbury education boards in New Zealand were facing difficulties, but he said the increased building allocation would allow them to work without too many problems. Mr J. L. Hunt (Lab., New Lynn) said an educational development loan should be floated in New Zealand to answer the needs of the teaching profession.