Teachers’ salary claims

Press, 12 April 1978, Page 16

Teachers’ salary claims

Sir, —- There are reasons other than the protracted and misnamed “negotiations” over salary claims underlying the growing unrest among post-primary teachers. One teacher spent thousands gaining a degree to help in her teaching and the department spent months locating in the manual the clause to avoid liability for her costly shift. Many teachers devote weeks on top of regular class work preparing for fairs to enable their school to pay for the equipment and amenities necessary for rounded education. “General purpose fees,” fund-raising, and the willingness of teachers to pay for teaching aids from their own pockets make up some of the deficiency in an education budget which falls woefully short in terms of its true cost. In a country becoming topsy-turvy, the man who kills the sheep demands more than the one who teaches his child, the soldier trained in the destructive act of warfare receives more than a teacher performing a constructive task, and the Minister of Education and his officers

turn out to be the teachers’ most determined opponents. — Yours, etc., ALINE PENGELLY. April 9, 1978.