Day-relief scheme may be reintroduced

Press, 9 April 1977, Page 10

Day-relief scheme may be reintroduced

PA Wellington’ The Minister of Education! (Mr Gandar) hopes to] reintroduce the primary school teacher day-relief scheme at the beginning of, the second term this year. Speaking after a meeting! with Mr Gandar at Parliament Building, the pre-i sident of the New | Zealand Educational In-] stitute (Mr J. Smith) said' Mr Gandar had repeated his (assurances that the restoration of the relief scheme! I was at the top of his educa-j tional priorities. Mr Smith said that the N.Z.E.I. had been assured that Mr Gandar would put a] proposal to the Cabinet} soon, and barring unexpected blockages, would announce the reintroduction of I the scheme at the N.Z.E.l.’s’

i'annual conference in May. | i The N.Z.E.I. was con-1 i cerned that there would be i j insufficient teachers avail- ■ able for the successful reins- ' tatement of the scheme, Mr ''Smith said. “Already we know that in ; I areas such as Taranaki and -Southland, and even the iHutt Valley, there will be a (shortage of teachers,” he, • said. When the day-relief scheme s had been suspended last • year as an economy meastlure, many relief teachers -(had left teaching and had .found other work, and it > was now uncertain whether I they would return. II Mr Smith said that primal ary schools might also be ■ hit hard by an improvement - in the economic situation. 'iThe economic depression in s'both New Zealand and Brit-

lain was now giving primary I schools a very high teacherretention rate, with people postponing overseas trips and women going out to work rather than staying at home. “Until two or three years passed, we will not know if there will be enough teachers with the reduction in entries to teachers’ colleges,” he said. The secretary of the N.Z.E.I. (Mr E. Simmonds) said that even a slight improvement in the economic situation could lose the schools 1000 teachers in a month. “We would never have got through the last 20 years if we had not had a pool of teachers in the community. If that pool is not kept deep enough, then we will be in trouble,” he said.