Tough teaching in London schools

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33453, 7 February 1974, Page 15

Tough teaching in London schools

(N.Z.P.A. Staff Correspondent) LONDON. The blackboard jungle of London’s schools has, taken another knock to' its image in recent; weeks, and the Inner London Education Auth-| ority, which has always, kept a hopeful eye on! Australian and New Zealand teachers arriving in Britain, is extending its recruitment | campaign to Cyprus. The serious teacher shortage in Britain, particularly among secondary teachers of mathematics, science and crafts, is largely attributed to poor pay, housing, and working conditions. But it has also been compounded by the raising of the school leaving age from 15 to 16.

There is no secret about the tough time London children can give a teacher, , and recently considerable ,! publicity was given to two ’(teachers who admitted play--1 ing truant rather than face (their unmanageable charges. Truant teachers are apparently almost as great a | problem as truant pupils in lithe London area, although I an authority spokesman did . | tell me that it was not conisidered a major concern. “We have little doubt that there are some teachers who j undergo stress and take days ■off because of the pressure, I but you find that in any ocIcupation,” he said. “They in(i variably have good excuses.” ■ The present shortage of I full-time secondary teachers II in London is put at 216, but i there are vacancies for a further 120 part-timers. The; /turn-over is so great among I the 11,000-odd secondaryj ‘(teachers that recruitment, has to be maintained at a;

. high level—the turn-over is i as high as one-third, and the prospect of stability from i bonded teachers recruited outside of Britain is tempting. According to the authority spokesman, Cyprus has quite a number of unemployed, British-trained teachers, and recruitment of, say, 20 teachers there would be considered a useful exercise. There have already been talks at Government-to-Gov-ernment level on the proposal. Meanwhile, New Zealanders and Australians would be recruited only from those suitably-qualified teachers reaching Britain under their ' own steam for working holidays.

s “We have points of con- i e tact and like to recruit them I n before they go and get a job i d in an ice-cream factory or ; :■ somewhere like that,” he i said. V Pay rates are not particu- 1 e larly good. In London the j *> teachers get a special allow- * “ ance of about SNZI9O a ! 0 year, but there has been a '■ dispute for almost two years 1 : - over the amount. The ' n National Union of Teachers J • is claiming SNZS6O a year, 1 • and the justice of their ‘ claim, many would say, * ■ ranks in a category second 1 “ to Britain’s miners. f e A young teacher on a . r basic rate earns SNZ2IOO a ' i- year. His experience could [ match that of Mr Michael <

Tamshere, now 32, who iound his first teaching job in London five years ago md eventually left it in a state of nervous shock. “I was almost literally in:arcerated in a classroom vith the most extraordinary >anch of kids I have ever net,” he said. “One was a ieroin addict, another had >een sent to a mental hospial because he tried to kill a nember of the staff with a irick. Another came from a iriminal family and I believe ie- has since had his brains mocked out against a lamp >ost.” Mr Hamshere, now teachng in Surrey, said that he vas often hit by pupils and lad received no training, to op& with such a situation.