Shortfall of secondary teacher trainees

Press, 2 March 1984, Page 4

Shortfall of secondary teacher trainees

PA ‘ Wellington The Education Department cannot attract enough people to secondary school teacher training, in contrast to primary and kindergarten teaching training. Interim figures given by the department yesterday show that the number of people undertaking secondary teaching training this year lias fallen short of the national, quota by almost 25 per cent The Government set its intake levels for 1984 at 650 for primary, 80 for kindergarten, and 425 for secondary teacher training. The kindergarten and primary sectors reached the target intake but secondary fell short by 103. This is in spite of the quota's being dropped from 5081 in 1983. The department’s director's of personnel, Mr Peter At-

kinson, said yesterday that the shortfall followed trends of recent years. The training for secondary teaching comprised a one-year course for university graduates and a fouryear course where students undertook tertiary education and teacher training at the same time. For the one-year course, the quota had been set at 175. However, only 154 people accepted places in the course. The biggest shortfall had been in attracting suitable candidates to teach technical subjects. In the four-year training course, only 168 people accepted places though the quota had been set at 250. ' Mr Atkinson said that the department was not greatly concerned about the shortfall because it could use the one-year graduate course to boost the number of trained

teachers if necessary. At'the same time primary schoolteachers have accepted that unemployment is inevitable, according to the New Zealand Education Institute. The N.Z.E.I. says in this week’s newsletter that teachers have become inured to the unemployment situation. It says that schools opened this year with “the usual confusion and anxiety" regarding jobs for teachers, and that many teachers did not know almost until schools opened whether they had a teaching position. A breakaway group of teachers, the Rank and File Teachers’ Organisation, yesterday severely criticised the N.Z.E.I. for its lack of concern about unemployed teachers. Figjjkes given by the Minister of* Education, Mr Well-

ington, a fortnight ago show that 1600 primary teachers are out of work. A spokesman, Ms Ann Ballantyne, said that the N.Z.E.L’s response to jobless primary teachers was inadequate. “We feel it should be sayiug that the continuing unemployment of teachers is totally unacceptable,” she said. “If the Education Department and employing bodies do not take steps to employ teachers, redundancy must be negotiated.” Ms Ballantyne siad that as far as the N.ZJE.L was concerned, teachers were no longer teachers when they were unemployed. The NJZ.E.I. just did not do enough, she said. “It turns a blind eye to unemployment. It is fighting for other things and is prepared not to make toamuch fuss about the unemployment, Ms Ballantyne said.