Will teachers ban cane?

Press, 24 August 1976, Page 5

Will teachers ban cane?

? A Wellington Secondary teachers will meet in Wellington this Week to decide the fate of corporal punishment.

Their 22-member executive recommends that all branches abolish caning immediately. The recommendation will be considered by 82 delegates attending next week’s tl.ree-day annual conference of the Post-Primary Teachers’ Association.

Corporal punishment first came before the conference three years ago when Taranaki members recommended that teachers drop the cane and find alternative ways to discipline students.

Delegates agreed, but set no time limit.

By last year the then Minister of Education (Mr Amos) was not opposed to changing legislation to ban corporal punishment.

The Educational Development Conference had also suggested banning the cane. The conference agreed to phase out corporal punishment before the 1977 school year started.

But the issue is still far from decided by teachers. During the past year the pros and cons have continued t flare up in correspondence columns of the teachers’ monthly journal. The conference will open this morning. The Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon), Leader of the Opposition (Mr Rowling), the president of the Combined State Service Organisations (Mr I. E. Reddish) and the president of the Educational Institute (Mr J. Smith) are the opening speakers. After the presidential address by Mr Gunthei Warner, the Minister of Education (Mr Gandar) will speak and answer questions. The conference will then consider 15 recommendations from special working parties which have studied incidental grants, teachers’ conditions of service, and women in secondary schools. One morning session has been set aside for debating the recent cuts in education spending.