WOMEN'S news&views ... Job problems for married teachers

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33360, 19 October 1973, Page 5

WOMEN'S news&views ... Job problems for married teachers

Married women secondary teachers who are classified as ••immobile” because they are unable to move out of Christchurch, are finding it practically impossible to get teaching jobs in the Christchurch area. "Therefore married women just graduating from teachers college who are unable to move out of Christchurch because of their husbands’ committments, are finding that their study and training have been a complete waste of time,” said Mrs Diane McCarthy, who conducted a survey on teachers’ employment opportunities in Christchurch. “Immobility is a problem that primarily affects the married woman,” said Mrs Deborah Stanley, who was also involved in the survey. Officially, a woman’s home was where her husband’s job was, and that created problems in Christchurch, she said. “In Christchurch there is an overload situation. There are more teachers than there are jobs.” The immobile teacher, said Mrs McCarthy, was in a fix because the fact that she was immobile did not count towards her getting a job in Christchurch. “The person with the, highest qualifications gets the job and I suppose that is only fair. But the teacher who cannot move is left high and dry.” MONEY WASTED The money paid by the Education Department for the training of that teacher is therefore wasted, she said. “And there is even more money if you have been 1 through university and train-: ing college on a student-j ship.” Theoretically, should a i teacher who is bonded not fulfil his bond, he must pay the Government back the money paid on his training. However, in the case of a married woman teacher unable to get a job, the bond can be deferred for a year

and the situation reviewed} ■ later that year. “Then the bond can be deferred again and the situation just goes on and on,” said Mrs McCarthy. The teacher is then faced ■ with finding alternative em- ■ ployment or else finds her- ■ self unemployed. “The Department of Edu- ‘ cation is aware of the problem but there does not seem ■ to be a great deal it can do about it,” she said. 40 LAST YEAR At the end of last year 40 ' women were classified as • “immobile” teachers and . were unable to get jobs. i "We do not yet know • what this year’s figures are I because not everyone has rer ceived notification of wheth-

er they have got employment or not yet. We will know for sure on December

Both Mrs McCarthy and Mrs Stanley feel that the fact that there are only two secondary training colleges in New Zealand is a major contributing factor to the problem. “Auckland did have a surplus of teachers at one stage but I understand that it is now faced with too many jobs and too few teachers. But Christchurch is, of course, the opposite and I think that many people who train here want to stay here. This leaves regions like the West Coast, Otago, Wellington, the King Country and the east coast of the North Island with appalling staffing problems,” said Mrs McCarthy. Both felt that geographical zoning might be necessary in the future because many students came from as far north as Hamilton to attend training college in Christchurch. “It is hard to find a solution to the problem. It is a situation that discriminates against women but it can have unfortunate effects on men. A man may be forced to transfer in his job because his wife is attending college in Christchurch, arrive here and find that there are no jobs for her; or a wife may be going to act as ’the breadwinner while her husband is perhaps at university working for a higher degree, and finds that she cannot get a teaching job,” she said.