Teacher trainees short of jobs

Press, 18 November 1981, Page 6

Teacher trainees short of jobs

About 60 per cent of graduating secondary teacher trainees, 450 people, will not have teaching jobs by next year according to teachers’ college surveys in Auckland and Christchurch. In Christchurch. 227 trainees had not been able to get a teaching job in spite of applying for up to 50 jobs advertised in the Education Gazette, said the president of the trainees, Mr Hugh Smith, yesterday. “This represents 66 per cent of graduating,secondary trainees from Christchurch,” said Mr Smith. A similar percentage of trainees in Auckland have no jobs either. "Only 40 per cent of a group of secondary trainees who graduated from Christchurch Teachers’ College in June of this year have secured positions so far,” he said. The announcement by the Minister of Education (Mr Wellington), that teachers’ college intakes would be cut by half would do nothing to reduce the expected teacher surplus next year, he said. “The Government appears to have no committement to employ teachers it has spent considerable amounts of the taxpayers’ money to train.” Canterbury’s member of

the Post-Primary Teachers' Association national executive, Mr W. M. Cook, said that each teacher cost about $60,000 to train which would be lost from the economy if many of the unemployee trainees had to move overseas. “There has been no increase in the staffing levels of the secondary area for the last eight years,” said Mr Cook. In that time the pressure on pupils and staff had vastly increased as had the complexity of subjects and the number of different roles required of teachers. “There is work to be done in schools and we need these teachers,” he said. Much “political mileage” had been made recently from the high number of applications for teachers’ colleges but most applicants went into the areas of low demand, such as social studies, and few into areas where there was a real shortage, such as science and mathematics. Mr Cook also said that the P.P.T.A. had seen the teacher surpluses coming for a long time. Mr Cook said that a Joint Staffing Committee set up by the Government four years ago reported after its first eight months that more teachers were needed im-

mediately in .... secondary schools for certain subjects. That report was ignored, he ■ said. < . . • The committee’s final report came out. this month. • “I am a little fearful that the creation of this staffing committee; and waiting for its report has been used politically to hold staff levels at the same level of eight years ago,” Mr Cook said. The surplus of teachers could “easily” be employed if the Government adopted lower teacher-pupil ratios, improved staff ratios in schools with specific problems, more teachers’ release time for in-service training, support services to teachers, programmes for children with special needs, job sharing, and earlier voluntary retirement. Mr Cook said that the Education Department refused to clarify what trainees’ bonding obligations would be if they could not find a teaching job. . “Teachers are required to teach for a period equal to the time they have spent training, otherwise repay the bond, but a situation has now arisen were there are insufficient positions for all secondary trainees to meet their service obligations.” “At present it appears that the Education Department expects trainees to sit about and wait for positions to become available. In the meantime will they join the growing unemployment queue?” Mr Smith said that the graduates would have ■no jobs to go to unless there was a change in government policy and he criticised Mr Wellington’s failure to provide a short-term solution. Christchurch trainees would meet today, to discuss any further action over the job shortages. Officers of the P.P.T.A. would address the meeting. The Director-General of Education (Mr W. L. Renwick) said last evening that secondary.;-, trainee’s anxieties about jooOppbrtun-_ ies were a common featureat this stage of- the year. The Education Department and the Minister would meet in mid-December to collate the survey of job opportunities and unplaced trainees, he said. . - ..

Usually trainees found jobs by February if they were willing to , move to areas of need and most .others found jobs'as ; the year progressed. Bonding problems were assessed on an individual basis, said Mr Renwick.