Refugees need English teachers

Press, 29 August 1980, Page 4

Refugees need English teachers

The Christchurch Polytechnic should have more staff to teach English as a second language to SouthEast Asian immigrants, city councillors have said.

Community services coms mittee members said the Education Department should be asked to bolster the staff and provide out-of-pocket expenses for volunteer teachers. About 15 volunteers in Christchurch . under the supervision of Mrs Rhona Thorpe have been helping with « refugees’ language problems. She works in close co-operation with the Polytechnic. . Christchurch was still getting from 15 to 20 refugees each month, and Polytechnic language classes were filled to overflowing, councillors were told. Refugees needed at' least eight to 12 hours of teaching a week at the Itart; or they

might give up, thinking the language was too difficult. Several refugees in Christchurch had lost jobs because of their problems in speaking English. The Polytechnic has one full-time tutor in English as a second language and about nine part-timers. Mr C. R.- Hockley, head of the department of language and communication studies, said he liked to have classes with one tutor to about 10 pupils, but classes had had as many as 15. There were classes run by five tutors four mornings a week, three afternoon classes, and seven evening classes two days a week. Mr Hockley agreed that immigrants needed about 12 hours teaching a week if they had had no English 'before coming to New Zealand. “Quite a few have not been, to the, Mangere induction centre- for the usual four weeks- because 1 they I

have come to reunite with their families,” he said. Earlier this year Mr Hockley got extra staff for his department, but by July classes were getting too full as more immigrants arrived. Mr Hockley said he had drafted a letter seeking more staff, but was told by the Polytechnic’s director (Mr J. Hercus) that there was little point in applying to the Education Department for more staff because it had already made-clear to all principals that there could be no more allocations. The department allocated a' certain number of staff, and Polytechnic .then had to place them in the various departments. , . , The Director of Technical Education (Mr G. ;E, Barker) said from .Wellington that the department saw the problem more as a matter of staff management by the Polytechnic. When the Polytechnic planned its year’s

courses it could shift priorities from one, course to. another without changing the over-all level of staffing. “We would love, to increase the staff level but there is a limit to the money that can be spent,” Mr Barker said. ' , . , The department had also suggested that sponsors of refugees should share some of the responsibility for helping them learn English. The department had • produced a series of booklets called “Teaching English in the Home,’,’ and. these were in three main < languages used by the refugees. /‘They aye designed so that they can be used by rionspecialist teachers in the home,” said Mr Barker. The department would like to see technical institutes bringing the volunteers together to teach them how to teach English as a second language, • ' . J

“We would like to encourage community involvement. I suspect we would do better in a less formal setting, such as a home, rather than the institutions, which can be rather threatening,” ' Mr Barker said. He did not think the dei partment had any responsibility to pay out-of-pocket : expenses to volunteers. They should work in with the organisations which had called for more of “these unfortu- ; nate people,” he said. If the Polytechnic could : show that it was not pos- : sible : to reallocate staff and that it had a pressing need ; for more teachers of English •as a second language, it could still write to the department and the application ; would be considered sympathetically. “We would have to look at the application in relation 1 to what the Polytechnic is 1 prepared to give up,” Mr Barker said.