Young Teachers Faced With Unemployment

Northern Advocate, 12 May 1939, Page 10

Young Teachers Faced With Unemployment

[Per Press Association. Copyright J WELLINGTON, This Day.

The serious position facing many teachers leaving the training colleges, through their inability to obtain permanent employment, was referred to at the annual conference of the New Zealand Educational Institute yesterday, A committee set up by the conference to consider remits dealing with staffing, said that it considered as the key remit one from Auckland that probationary assistance be made supernumerary to the ordinary staff. Mr M. A. Hanna (Otago) said that at the end of 1937 the number of teachers leaving the Dunedin* Training College had been .48. men and 78 women, who had become probationary assistants in schools.

Since October last, when the new salary regulations had become operative, one man and 16 w T omen had obtained permanent positions, leaving 47 men and 62 women still as supernumeraries, and not in permanent positions. Assuming that 45 of the remainder were required as spare parts there was still ,an excess of 64 over the number nominally required to fill positions in a relieving capacity. Grading Requirements.

The present grading requirements for Grade 1 positions was from 170 to 177, and the grading of supernumeraries coming out of training colleges was approximately 200, Assuming an average deduction oi 6 grading marks a year, it would be at least four years before teachers, whc ho believed should be employed at the present time, could have any hope at all of appointments to the lowest po sitions.

“A worse feature even than that,” continued Mr Hanna, “is that while these teachers remain unemployed about the same number will be coming out of training collegese each year. So there must be a piling up of a large number of teachers for whom, under the present methods of staffing, there will be unemployment.

“If the position persists during the next four years, it is inevitable that we must get back to where we were under tlie rationing scheme during the depression.” ,