Takeover bid of classes denied by teachers

Press, 4 November 1986, Page 35

Takeover bid of classes denied by teachers

PA Wellington Primary and secondary teachers are squabbling in staffrooms and hotels over assertions that secondary schools are mounting a takeover bid for Forms 1 and 2 classes. Secondary teachers say they have been verbally abused, and in some cases shunned by their primary colleagues, since the start of a campaign by the primary “teachers’ union aimed at averting any such takeover.

The primary teachers’ union, the Educational Institute, believes secondary teachers are lobbying to take control of Forms 1 and 2 classes by disestab-

lishing intermediates and setting up Forms 1 to 7 schools, as a way of solving the problem of job losses caused by falling rolls. That assertion is denied by the president of the Post-Primary Teachers’ Association, Mr Peter Allen. He said that while the association’s policy believed secondary education should begin in Form 1, it had done nothing to pursue that goal. There was no bid to take over Forms 1 and 2 pupils, he said. The association was concerned about the incidents of abuse being levelled at members.

Mr Allen said most incidents had been in rural areas, where primary and secondary teachers tended to mix more. In some area schools, which have pupils from JI to Form 7, primary staff had refused to speak to secondary colleagues in the staffrooms. There were also reports of secondary teachers being verbally abused in hotels. Mr Allen said association representatives had met with the institute to reassure it that there was no takeover bid. “This inter-union abuse does nothing for any of us,” said Mr Allen.