Jobless teachers form group

Press, 19 August 1982, Page 6

Jobless teachers form group

; An unemployed post-prim-ary teachers’ group was 1 formed at a meeting in Christchurch last’evening. • About 40 unemployed teachers attended the meeting, held at Christchurch Girls' High School and organised by the Canterbury branch of the Post-Primary Teachers’ Association. “They were a group of people who were angry and worried,” said the association’s regional chairman, Mr Frank O'Connell. They decided to form a group called Unemployed Teachers’ Action whose first action would be to write to the Minister of Education (Mr Wellington) expressing their anger. Mr O’Connell said that all the people at the meeting were seeking permanent teaching jobs. They included new graduates and former teachers who wanted to return to teaching. “They were only a fraction of the number of unemployed teachers in Canterbury. We know there are at least 100, but a lot did not come, probably because they have given up hope,” he said. The new group would compile information about unemployed teachers to use in a publicity campaign. ? “They want to show the public that here is a group of skilled people who want to work but who are unable to,” he said.