Plans denounced

Press, 17 December 1976, Page 1

Plans denounced

PA Wellington The Student Teachers’ Association has denounced the Education Department’s recruitment moves and describes talk of a primary teacher surplus as “sheer nonsense.”

The association’s president (Mr A. Purves) said yesterday: “The department’s original quotas for recruitment already reflect a 15 per cent reduction on last year’s figures. Now primary education is expected to take a further cut.

“The department has claimed that a higher retention rate and a greater number of teachers returning to the service have resulted in a teacher surplus. “This is sheer nonsense.

There isy. no teacher surplus. What in fact exists is an inadequate staffing schedule. “The Students’ Association believes that this era of higher retention and falling birth rates is an ideal time to reshape the structure of staffing in our primary schools,” said Mr Purves. “Although there has been some improvement in the teacher-pupil ratio in some areas under the new continuous staffing schedule, other areas have suffered.

“There should no longer be any need to have our schools staffed under anything less than ideal teacher-pupil ratios, given the teachers who are now available, but rather than do this the department has set upon a course of reducing the number of teachers in the service. The situation is quite ludicrous.

“In addition to the staffing consideration, there is the fact that a number of people who had been notified that they had been accepted for teacher training have subsequently been notified that they are no longer required.” Mr Purves said that he had been informed bv the Director-General of Education (Mr Bill Renwick) that the department had an obligation to these people only after they had returned a signed bond commitment.

“This is quite unjust. Many of these people had been holding other jobs in abeyance until they learned whether they had been accepted to teaching training. “Having been informed that thev were successful, some of these people will have told their prospective employers that they were entering teacher training and. thus, would not need an alternative job. Now thev have nothing at all “The department should have directed that all of those people to whom acceptances had been sent should be allowed to enter teachers’ college.” Not only had the department embarked on a very short-sighted exercise of staffing cuts for the future, but it had done it in a way that would cause the maximum difficulty for applicants for teacher training and maximum embarrassment for the education boards, which had the task of telling these people that their acceptance had been revoked. •

“Once again economic considerations have takep priority over people and over long-term planning,” said Mr Purves. “In a few years the department will use a shortage of teachers as an excuse for not developing a realistic staffing schedule. Whatever happens, it appears that education simply cannot win.”