Teachers’ morale ‘appalling’

Press, 22 August 1979, Page 3

Teachers’ morale ‘appalling’

PA Wellington The Leader of the Opposition (Mr Rowling) said yesterday he was appalled at th state o r morale among teachers.

And I am appalled at the amount of human wastage that is .t p r esent eroding the profession, especially that related to teachers of considerable experience and skill,” he told the annual conference in Wellington, of the Post Primary Teachers’ Association.

The number leaving teaching could be described only a 1 catastrophic, he said.

“It is not a situation that has bepn created overnight,’’ Mr Rowling said. “Nor is it a situation tb-t has been created purely by the strains within the education system itself. “I believe it is unfortunate, therefore, that in the public mind the debate has concentrated on purely financial factors — on the amount of money that teachers get-. “Simply providing more money is not going to wipe out the problems. “Moi money is not suddenly going to make it worth while to face up to the pressure of 40 teenagers day after day,” said Mr Rowling, himself a former teacher. “It is not, and never has been simply the lure of money that brings people into teaching and keeps them there.”

Mr Rowling said it was unfortunate that it usually took something spectacular, such as the recent spate of

gang violence, to make people sit up and open their eyes to the reality of New Zealand today.

“That lasts a few weeks and then we sink back into our general apathy leaving t's problems of alienated youth to someone-else,” he said. “Your members are frequently the ‘someone else’,” he told the teachers. “Your people deal with the reality of the situation every day of their working lives. “You cope with the end results of the pressures that break down familj and community life, with the growing strain of poverty that is creeping into many families, with the stupid decisions of the past that have created little more than ghettoes and grandly called them housing developments, with the tensions of an ever-shrinking employment market, with our seeming inability to use the la v ’ creatively.” Mr Rowling said teachers i 'ere called up to assume ever-increasing responsibility that had little to do with their professional training and obligations.

“More and more teachers are thrust into the role of parent, confidante, and counsellor,” he said. “And when things go wrong it is far too often you people, and not the home, the community, or th2 direction of the economy, who receive the blame.

“The truth is that we are all responsible but we expect you to put things right. The schools cannot cure the situation.