STRAIN ON TEACHERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27389, 15 May 1950, Page 7

STRAIN ON TEACHERS

Present Staff Shortages NOT IN INTERESTS OF PUPILS PA AUCKLAND, M£y 12. “The heavy nervous strain to which post-primary teachers were subjected and the undue encroachment upon their private time and energy because of the multiplicty of tasks they are expected to perform are not in the interests of the pupils, the teachers, nor the community generally,” states a report presented to the New Zealand Secondary Schools’ Association- conference today. The association decided to press for the progressive liberalising of the staffing scale as a means of alleviating the burden. The association also decided to press for the appointment of laboratory technicians to the staff of post-primary schools. Careful planning for the recruitment and training of post-primary teachers to cope with the increased intake of pupils expected in the near future was still necessary, said Mr A. M. Nicholson, of Tauranga, a college member of the executive. He said that planning should include a constant survey of the needs of different subjects and consequential supervision of the university course of prospective teachers to ensure that there is no shortage of teachers in any particular subject. The association decided to urge this need and to stress the close connection between an efficient teaching force and the conditions of service. A recommendation that recruitment should be sufficient to permit of Sabbatical leave for teachers was also approved.