SOLDIER-TEACHERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26226, 9 August 1946, Page 4

SOLDIER-TEACHERS

GRADING ADJUSTMENT SPECIAL PROVISION MADE (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Aug. 8. Regulations providing for the settin;. up of a soldier-teachers’ grading adjustment board to deal specifically with the grading of soldier-teachers were gazetted to-night. Commenting on these, the Actihg Minister of Education, Mr Nordmeyer, said that grading was an important matter for teachers, as it determined their place on the grading list for appointment to higher positions in the service. During the hearing of appeals by the ordinary Teachers’ Grading Appeal Board in 1945, appeals were received from teachers who were exservicemen and claimed that their grading as teachers had been adversely affectea by service with the forces. In some cases the board felt that some adjustment should be made, but it did not have power to make full adjustment within the provisions of the ordinary regulations. Composition of Board

A committee representing the department and the New Zealand Educational Institute considered the matter, the Minister said, and recommended that a special board be set up with power to go beyond the present regulations where it was shown that there had been hardship as a result of service in the forces. An example of such hardship was that teachers not in the forces had obtained war appointments and thus gained more rapid progress in grading while teachers in the forces could not. of course, obtain such an advantage. “ In making provision for this special board,” Mr Nordmeyer said, “ the Government desires it to hear the applications of sdldier-teachers both in primary and post-primary services. The board will consist of three members—an independent chairman appointed by the Minister of Education, a representative of the Education Department, and a representative of the teachers. Applications will not be treated as ordinary appeals, but the board will deal sympathetically with the cases. Removal of Hardship

“The Government desires that any The Government desires that any hardship with respect to grading that any teacher may have suffered through military service should be removed. This special provision is part of the undertaking given to teachers by the Minister of Education that they would be placed as closely at the stage ■in their career, including their place on the grading list, that they would have reached if military service had not intervened.”