Super, puts teacher intakes in danger

Press, 10 February 1983, Page 4

Super, puts teacher intakes in danger

Teachers' College intakes were in danger of becoming dominated by upper, middleclass people who could "pay their way through the system,” Christchurch Teachers' College Council members were told yesterday.

Students could not afford to pay the superannuation required by the Superannuation Board, said Mr R. K. Graham.

Superannuation , for trainees was based on the first-year salary of a teacher of $ll,OOO. This meant that students were expected to pay about $B4O a year when they were receiving a grant of $27 a week or $lOBO a year, said the college registrar, Mr A. R. Donnithorne.

Students could defer payment of the superannuation until they began working, but were then required to pay 8 per cent interest. The rate of superannuation was on a level with other Government departments but

the teacher trainees were in a different situation, said Mr Graham. Teacher trainees in the past had been paid well, but now they were “at the bottom of the heap in a big way."

A student representative on the council, Mr J. Young, said that the superannuation would encourage students to opt for full-time university study rather than teachers’ college because both lots of students were- on the same grant of .$27 a week.

Students at the college were opposed to the imposition of superannuation payments and the college council should strenuously oppose them, he said. Professor G. W. O. Woodward said the payments would not be unreasonable if they were optional. At present. the students were required to pay about 80 per cent of their yearly "income’ in superannuation? Unless students had priv-

ate resources it was impossible for them to pay it.

It would also be difficult for students to pay the superannuation off when they had started working, said Mr Young. There was a degree of certainty of jobs for primary teachers for their first year, but secondary teachers had no such guarantee. Committee

Council members decided on the composition of a committee to interview applicants for the post of principal of the college. The present principal. Dr J. F. Mann, will retire in May. The committee to draw up a short list of applicants would consist of the council chairman and deputy chairman, the principal of another teachers' college, and council members representing university interests, the Education Department, and primary and secondary teachers and others.