Govt ‘control’ of teachers

Press, 13 February 1982, Page 6

Govt ‘control’ of teachers

A Government decision to give employment priority to teachers with an unbroken service record was one way for it to adhere to the 3 per cent Government cutback and control the number of teachers in employment, a member of the Canterbury Education, Board said yesterday. “My feeling is that our executive must have agreed to this under duress," Mr R. F. Armstrong said. “I thing that every young teacher should go’ overseas. But if they do this they are in serious trouble.”

Mr Armstrong said that teachers who failed to get a job in the first weeks or first

term also dropped to the bottom of the list. The board chairman, Mr D. L. Waghorn, said that the Government had adopted a policy of being loyal to teachers who were loyal to the system—"those who haven’t chosen to .opt in and out of the situation from time to time.”

Mr Waghorn said that the new policy allowed the board to apply to the Minister for individual dispensation in a serious situation.

Another board member, Mrs N. J. Johnson, said that she knew of third-year teachers who couldn’t get a job. Some had applied for up to 100 jobs.

“So they say to themselves this is the right time to go overseas,” she said. “If there had been plenty of situations it would have been different.”

Mrs Johnson said she did not believe that these teachers were disloyal. Mrs Armstrong said that teachers who could not get a job and accepted part-time employment were also in the same category. “Loyal, but down the drain,” he said. Mrs R. J. Cowell told the board that the answer lay in doing something about the positions available. “We could all name places for extra teachers,” she said. “There are more teachers

than the country can sustain positions for, or the Government is willing to provide positions for,” Mrs Cowell said. “This is a vexed question and there is not an answer.” Mr M. C. Butler said that the Government decision was a severe blow against the individual.

“We well know that there are many good teachers who have been out and come back in," he said. "They have brought experience back in with them."

Mr J. P. Ponsonby said that employing immobile teachers in the city areas meant that young teachers were forced into the country.