PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS WANT A BETTER SERVICE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27018, 1 March 1949, Page 6

PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS WANT A BETTER SERVICE

Primary school teachers are urging that conditions in their service be raised to the level of those in the postprimary service. Their claims are being advanced by the New Zealand Educational Institute. “For many years the institute has advocated the unification of all branches of education in New Zealand/’ says an editorial in the March issue of National Education, the institute’s journal. “This year its advocacy will be stronger than ever, for though some important steps have been taken towards the institute’s goal, progress has been much slower than it should be. “Primary school teachers cannot be expected to remain content under a system which classes them, iij salary rates and conditions of service, as inferior to post-primary teachers. The idea that work done in post-primary schools is more important than work done in primary schools is so archaic that one marvels to see it perpetuated in an administration that is more enlightened in its attitude towards education than its predecessors have been. “Yet it still flourishes. The postprimary teacher continues to draw a higher salary than the primary school teacher of comparable service and ability. The sixth form teacher still has his handful of pupils while the infant mistress struggles with a greater number than any Minister or departmental head would find tactful to admit in public. The post-primary pupil still has a great deal more money spent off him by the State than has the primary school pupil. v In its fight to change this, the institute will not countenance any lowering of post-primary standards. The process must be one of building up, not levelling down. The post-primary school teacher has nothing that teachers should not have; indeed, there is much more that he should have. But what he has the primary school teacher should have, too. “ Unification was recommended in the Atmore report, and is part of the educational policy of the present Government. It must come, but it is the immediate task of the institute to see that it comes soon.”