BRIEFER PROBATION PERIOD FOR YOUNG TEACHERS

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 May 1949, Page 3

BRIEFER PROBATION PERIOD FOR YOUNG TEACHERS

AUCKLAND, May 13 (P.A.)— Plans to meet the present shortage of teachers, including an emergency training plan, the early certification of probationary assistants, and greater use of part-time teachers, have been made by the Education Department. Action to put the scheme into operation in the Auckland district was taken by the education board today. The department stated that it was with reluctance that it had decided to introduce a scheme for early certification. All 1949 probationary assistants are to be advised that they may now apply for immediate certifications and this will be granted if the senior inspector recommends it. As soon as an assistant is certified he or she will become eligible for supernumerary employment and will be required to accept a post as a relieving teacher anywhere in the Dominion. He will be given, a provisional grading which will be revised at the end of the year. It is proposed to fill vacancies left as a result of the early certification scheme by second-yeai* training college students who are able to obtain a recommendation from the principal for the C examination and probationary assistance service. These students will serve two terms as a probationary assistant and then become eligible for certification on the recommendation of the senior inspector. The plan to make wider use of part-time teachers will, as far as the Auckland board is concerned, be confined mainly to country schools, A condition of engagement will be that the teacher must attend regularly, cither in the mornings or afternoons, on every clay of the school week.

Details of the emergency training scheme are to be announced shortly by the Minister of Education (Mr McCombs). The staff shortage is particularly acute in country schools. A large number of vacancies for women assistants, mainly in two and threeteacher country schools, have been advertised on several occasions without attracting applicants, and many country schools are understaffed because no relieving teachers are available. .