Trainee teachers protest

Press, 4 August 1983, Page 8

Trainee teachers protest

Christchurch teacher trainee protests against cuts in allowances did not interfere with their classes yesterday. Nevertheless, the Minister of Education, Mr Wellington, has retaliated by withdrawing the Teacher Trainees’ Association’s $lOOO grant. This had been threatened by Mr Wellington, after the association said last week that the trainees would cut classes to protest against what they believe are inadequate allowances.

A member of the Christchurch Teacher Trainees’ Association executive, Mr John Young, said that their protest had been from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. yesterday. At that time on a Wednesday, there were no classes scheduled. After an hour in the Square yesterday morning, seeking signatures to a public petition protesting the amount teacher trainees were expected to pay for superannuation each week, the trainees gathered in the cafe at the Teachers’ College in Dovedale Avenue. About 250 trainees, most of them in their first year, watched a show and listened to speeches by Mr Young, Mr Richard Bach, education

spokesman for Social Credit, Mr David Close, a Labour Party member of the City Council, Mrs Margaret Murray, the woman vice-presi-dent of the National Party, and a Teachers’ College lecturer, Mr lan Todd. Teacher trainees needed up to $2OOO more than the tertiary allowance to cover living expenses, Mr Young told the meeting. “To pay for the cost of living, we would have to earn $7OO a week during the seven-week vacation,” he said.

He said that in 1982, teacher trainees were put on the standard tertiary bursary and the superannuation payments were increased. There were few at the college who could afford to pay the $ll a week to superannuation out of their $27 a week income.

Mrs Murray told the meeting that she would talk to Mr Wellington next week and the best thing the trainees could do was to collate a series of case studies, illustrating their hardships.

She said it was “absolutely ludicrous” that any student on a tertiary bursary should be expected to

contribute to the superannuation fund. Mr Close told the trainees that teacher training was not the same as in other tertiary institutions, and therefore should not be treated the same. "Teacher trainees have a semi-professional status; while on section in schools they are required to have a respectable standard of dress and have to teach children,” he said.

This topic was raised later by the trainees, who said they could not see the difference between themselves and cadets such as police and fire service trainees. Those cadets were on a decent living wage, while teacher trainees, who were public servants, were reduced to the basic $27 a week bursary. Mr Young said after the meeting that they had about 600 signatures for the petition already, aand hoped to get more on Friday when the theatre group and trainees would be in the Square. Confirming the withdrawal of the $lOOO grant to the trainees’ association, Mr Wellington said he was not impressed by shop-floor tac-

tics and felt that the students did not deserve one penny of taxpayers’ money, the Press Association reported. The grant — for administration purposes — had been cut because of the boycott of classes in several centres, said a spokeswoman at the Minister’s office.

Reports from Wellington — where they marched to Parliament — Auckland, Christchurch, and Dunedin, indicated that about 1200 trainee teachers had taken part in the protest rallies ... but not all classes and lectures were disrupted. There had been no dislocation either in Christchurch and Dunedin.

The principal of the Dunedin Teachers’ Training College, Mr C. H. Irwin, said the students had acted most responsibly and the college programme had not been disrupted.

“It is a shame and unfair to be treated in this manner by the Minister,” said Mr Irwin.

In Wellington the lunchtime march by about 350 waving placards and chanting, including a Palmerston North contingent, disrupted traffic. The banners included “Merv’s Got a Nerve,” “Training for the Dole,” and “People are New Zealand’s Richest Resource — Education is the Best Investment.” Pall bearers carried a black coffin reading “Death of Trainees,” and the students sent a wreath to Mr Wellington’s office with a banner “In Memory of Education.”

The biggest rally of the day was in Auckland where

about 500 trainees, accompanied by some lecturers, gathered in Aotea Square and marched down Queen Street to Queen Elizabeth II Square. They heard speakers from the Labour Party, and from other educational unions supporting the trainees’ case for a separate living allowance.

The Opposition’s spokesman on education, Wanganui’s Mr C. R. Marshall, spoke to the Auckland students at a rally before their march. Any Government attack on teacher training was an attack on New Zealand children, he told them. “By adopting the stance the present Minister has taken towards teacher training he is effectively placing a vote of no-confid-ence in the children of today and tomorrow.” Mr Marshall said teaching surely needed to encourage the best people possible to work with children and the existing allowances would not do this. The Post-Primary Teachers’ Association also supports the trainees. The association’s general secretary, Mr Graham Gillespie, said secondary teachers were concerned about the financial plight of individual trainees. “The teachers are also concerned about the effect the inadequate allowance system will have on the composition of the teaching service in the years to come.” Mr Gillespie said people who did not have an independent source of income could not afford to take up teaching.