Teacher-trainees’ leader tells of ‘absurd burden’

Press, 10 December 1984, Page 17

Teacher-trainees’ leader tells of ‘absurd burden’

PA Wellington Young teacher-trainees would have to save $550 a week every week of the summer holidays to survive without their parents’ help through the next teachers’ college year, the national president of the Teacher Trainees’ Association, Ms Alison Taylor, has said.. Meeting a deficit of $3850 a year was an absurd burden to put on those chosen to be future teachers, Ms Taylor said. A survey of incomes had shown that the bursary system was the wrong scheme to train teachers. Most trainees would only be able to save $5OO at the most this summer, and it was unjust to force trainees to find the remaining $3350 from their

personal resources or their parents to become a teacher, she said.

Teacher-trainee benefits from the bursary depreciated each year as the cost of teaching resources and living costs rose and the real value of the bursary diminished.

“The range of teachers who can be recruited and who have that kind of money will keep getting smaller until a separate teacher-training salary scheme is restored,” Ms Taylor said. The incoming president of the association, Ms Jill Tyler, said that she was worried that the lack of well-paid summer jobs would make it even harder for trainees to save.

“The cream of the summer jobs available has already been absorbed by university and polytechnic students, some of whom are already joining the dole queues,” she said. “The prospects look fairly bleak for teacher trainees who have not already got a summer job through their own contacts. Bursaryholders cannot afford to be unemployed during summer,” Mis Tyler said.