Teachers welcome return of in-service training

Press, 14 May 1985, Page 9

Teachers welcome return of in-service training

Christchurch teachers have welcomed the Government’s decision to restore

in-service teacher training programmes and revive a national network of teacher resource centres.

The decision, announced recently by the Minister of Education, Mr Marshall, has also delighted the principal of Christchurch Teachers’ College, Mr lan Stewart.

A teacher resource centre will be set up at the college from 1986, and will have a secondary school teacher as its director, a technician and clerical assistant, as well as equipment and accommodation facilities.

New buildings would be needed at the college for the centre, said Mr Stewart yesterday. “It is ironic that, having disposed of a section of the college to the Post Office, the college will now need further buildings for the centre,” Mr Stewart said.

“The centre will complement the substantial continuing education and teacher assistance programmes which the college is already mounting,” he said.

The local chairman of the Post-Primary Teachers’ Association, Ms Rae James, said a teacher resource centre was long overdue and badly needed in Christchurch. “A lot of teacher time goes into the preparation of teacher resources, and such a centre would provide a centralised place to hold resources, which can be refined and shared,” Ms James said. “Teachers tend to be isolated in schools and do not get the chance to meet

other teachers and share resources,” she said. Curriculum changes had made the provision of resource centres increasingly urgent.

Ms James said the reinstatement of in-service training for teachers, by restoring the 30 per cent cut made in 1980, was also badly overdue. “Very little in-service training has gone on since 1980. The teacher-only days at school have been totally unsatisfactory,” Ms James said. “In-service training is extremely important to help teachers meet the demands of curriculum changes,” she said.

Primary teachers would have greater opportunities to improve their qualifications with more in-service training, said the president of the Christchurch branch of the Educational Institute, Mr lan Kennedy.

It should also ease the load on teachers’ college staff, which had been providing advanced study courses for teachers in addition to its other work, he said.

More relieving-teacher days had to be provided so more teachers could be released for training courses. “In the Canterbury Education Board area, reliev-ing-teacher days have been cut back from 6500 a year about five years ago to 2600 days last year,” Mr Kennedy said. “It is pleasing to have a Minister of Education who places the needs of pupils and teachers as a priority,” he said.