Trainees angry over cuts in allowances

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34128, 14 April 1976, Page 2

Trainees angry over cuts in allowances

About 300 trainee teachers expressed angry disapproval in Christchurch yesterday morning about the Government’s reduction in allowances paid to firstyear teacher trainees.

The meeting, the first to be held on this matter, was organised by the student branch of the Post-Primary Teachers’ Association at the Christchurch Teachers’ College. Urgent action was demanded by the trainees from the Minister of Education (Mr Gandar) and the Cabinet to reverse a decision given to all teachers’ colleges last week, that the 3.1 per cent January wage order would not be paid to first-year trainees. The Government’s decision affects more than 2000 primary and secondary teacher trainees in New Zealand’s eight teachers’ colleges. The president of the student branch of the P.P.T.A. (Mr G. Buhlman) said that the cuts were dis-

criminatory and illogical in that they' had been made only against first-year trainees.

•EQUALITY' A member of the national executive of the PostPrimary Teachers’ Association. Mr C. A. Wright, who is also a senior lecturer at the Christchurch Teachers’ College, said the reduction in first-year trainee teachers’ allowances heralded what could be further major cuts in education spending.

He cited the s3.Bm which the Government hoped to save by abolishing the dayrelief scheme for teachers in secondary schools, and the “appallingly low” level of assistance proposed to help schools in debt in their grants for the running of schools.

Mr Wright’s view was shared by the president of the Students’ Union at the teachers’ college (Mr R. Dowling), who said there was no assurance from the Government that the refusal to pay first-year teacher trainees their rightful increase would not be extended to cover the next wage order.

Only one of the more than 300 students at the meeting voted against a motion which condemned the Government reductions in trainee allowances and called on the Gov-

ernment to "recognise the principle of equality in reference to the granting of the January wage order.”

•STRONGEST PROTEST Students believed that the reductions were the “thin end of the wedge,” and decided to register the “strongest protest with the Minister of Education in the hope the situation will be reviewed.” The Government would save only about $40,000, and such short-term economic gains should not be made at the expense of educational motivation and discriminatory practices against a minority group. If teacher trainees did not act strongly now. the reductions would be regarded as a backward step for all teacher trainees of the future, said a representative of the Students’ Association at the primary division of the Christchurch Teachers’ College. The representative of the P o s t-Primary Teachers’ Association on the Christchurch Teachers’ College Council (Mr J. Murdoch) said that the Government’s decision seemed unfair to first-year trainees.

“This has changed their salary relativity with other trainees, without proper consultation or negotiation," Mr Murdoch said.