NEW TEACHERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22525, 16 September 1936, Page 16

NEW TEACHERS

CHANGES DEPLORED appeal to department CRITICISM BY HEADMASTER [by telegraph— own correspondent] NEW PLYMOUTH, Tuesday "We have a good man in tho present Minister of Education, and if he knows that the people are up in arms he will take action," said Mr. D. P. Evans, headmaster of the Central School, the largest primary school in New Plymouth in a report to the committee on the disorganisation caused by frequent changes of teachers in schools. The committee has readily supported Mr. Evans and lias dpcided to request tho Tarannki Education Board and the various school committees' associations to make representations to the Education Department.

Tho present numerous changes were most discouraging and disheartening to tho headmasters and stall's of schools, said Mr. Evans. Ho described the position as becoming desperate. A waiving of soiuo of the regulations and the exercise of common sense, he acjded, would obviate much of the disorganisation that now prevailed throughout the primary schools of the Dominion.

"I am of the opinion that the teachers are receiving too much consideration and tho children too little," Mr. Evans continued. "It is the future of the child that should bo pre-eminent in tho minds of our educationists, and matters should be so arranged that the child receives tho full benefit of what is due to him from education. Under the present system only limited good can result." '

Mr. Evans gave examples of cases of successful relieving teachers being transferred, and said «that if relieving teachers did not receive permanent places they would be left in tho air. By a waiving of the regulations this could be overcome.

A number of parents had complained of teachors being moved too often, said the acting-chairman, Mr. E. W. Hoddor. One teacher had already had five positions this year. "The salary system is rotton," declared Mr. Evans. "The teachers should bo assured of a position for five years, and if their work is satisfactory they should have regular salary increases. That is not the case now, and is a cause of changes by teachers applying for other positions at higher salaries."