ORGANISING TEACHERS.

Northern Advocate, 28 May 1921, Page 3

ORGANISING TEACHERS.

QUESTION OF DISTRIBUTION

EFFICIENCY IN BACKBLOCK

SCHOOLS,

"Probably the best thing done for the ehi'dren of the backblocks m recent year s was the creation of a staff of organising teachers, wfto are employed by the nine education boards/' said the 'Minister of Education (Hon. ۥ J. Parr) a day or two ago. "These tcachers are experienced men. whose main task is to supervise and assist in the small schools where the teach-

ers are uncertificated. The chief inspector of -primary schools has been looking into thi s branch of the service, and he has gathered some interesting facts. The organising teachers number 28 for the Dominion, and they cost, approximately £15.700 per annum. We find that travelling expenses alone amount to some £4000 per annum."

'The Minister proceeded to say that an examination of the reports of the inspectors on 406 schools visited by the supervising teachers showed that only 4-1 schools were described as weak. The chief inspector reported that the organising teachers were most needed in the North Island and in Marlborough, Nelson and Westland. It appeared that Canterbury, Otago and Southland had a much smaller proportion of untrained and uncertificated teachers than other parts of the Dominion, and so had less need .for the supervision of small schools. A further analysis of the reports seemed to indicate that Canterbury and -Otago had a larger proportion, of experienced men and women .among their uncertificated teachers than the other districts. The uncertificated teachers were classified according to their work, and the returns showed that the distribution of the organising teachers required attention. Auckland had three organising teachers and 194 uncertiificf\tcd teachers -of :belo\v average merit. Taranaki had four organising teachers iffor 14 of these inferior teachers, 'and the figures for the other education districts were as follows? —Wanganui, four for 31; Hawke's Bay, three for 22; Wellington, two for 20; Nelson, three for 32; Canterbury, four for 13; Otago. three for 4; Southland, two for 36. It was true that uncertificated teaShes who were of average merit also required some of the attention of the org£\nising tachers, but even when they were included n the calculation it appeared that the organising, teachers were not distributed according to the needs of-the districts. ;

"I gather from the report of the chief inspector," said the Minister, "that the average number of uncertificated 'teachers of the inefficient class to each organising teacher is 13. On this basis Auckland should "have 15 of the organising teachers instead of 3, Canterbury should have 1 instead of 4, Wellington should continue to have 2, Taranaki should have 1 instead of 4, and so on. It is quite clear that the Dominion a* a whole is not getting the best possible value from the work of the organising teachers." Mr Parr added that the matter required some attention, and he was going to consider what measures were necessary to obtain even better results than were now being obtained from the excellent work of the organising teachers.

The Minister mentioned that many of the ; uncertificated teachers were, being assisted to qualify themselves. About 10Q0 young pople were now being trained in the training colleges and he hoped that by the year after next the Education Department would be able to .effect material improvements by increasing the proportion of certificated teachers and reducing the size of classes. He expected that Eorae relief would be afforded next year by the appoint ment of additional certificated teachers to the school s where large classes existed, j