UNEMPLOYED TEACHERS

Evening Post, Volume 137, Issue CXI, 10 June 1926, Page 8

UNEMPLOYED TEACHERS

A BUBBLE PRICKED.

Mention has been made several times recently in messages from other centres about properly qualified'school teachers being unable to find billets, so it was not surprising to find this subject brought forward at yesterday's meeting of the Council of Education. A motion having been proposed to the effect that such teachers should be drafted into temporary positions or be appointed as permanent relieving teachers, Mr. J. Caughloy, Director of Education, said that ho welcomed the opportunity to explode a fallacy. Unsubstantiated charges had been made about the unemployed teachers, but when investigation was made it was usually found that the teacher who was supposed to be unable to find a billet was not really prepared to take what was offering; he would not, for instance, go into the country because he wished to bo near the facilities of a town. It was further explained that only in Canterbury and Otago were there more certificated teachers just out of the training colleges than there were positions vacant. The cause of this was a mistake in the calculation of the number of admissions to the training colleges, but this would be rectified in the future. Mr. Caughley also exploded ' the theory that there were large numbers of classes of over 60 pupils, it having been suggested that these largo classes might be cut down and work thus found for unemployed teachers. . The number of such classes, he said, was greatly; ovor-estimated. ■