TEACHERS’ RESIDENCES

Southland Times, Issue 18974, 22 June 1923, Page 4

TEACHERS’ RESIDENCES

In another column there appears a letter from a correspondent who writes plainly but effectively on the subject of residences for teachers in the country, meeting the suggestion that residences are more urgently needed in the towns. His statement of the conditions which drove out one teacher is enough to rout any argument which attempts to convince us that those teachers who are appointed to rural schools need not have residences provided for them. It will be admitted at the outset that from the viewpoint of the Education Board there are serious difficulties, but, after all, the board’s chief concern is to induce teachers to go to the country to take charge of schools in surroundings which do not offer attractions to equal those of the large towns, and it therefore cannot be argued that a young man or a young woman who has to accept board at places where their requirements cannot be met is likely to go to the country with any joy. The fanner who opens his door to the teacher because he cannot find shelter elsewhere cannot be blamed if the conditions are not favourable to study. As our correspondent has pointed out, fanners in the back country do not build houses any larger than they need, and the addition of a teacher to the household as a boarder is often decidedly inconvenient. These conditions may at times be exceedingly irksome for a young man, but if that is so the effect on young women must be intensified. More than two years ago we referred to the fate of a young woman who went to the country as a teacher, and in a few months had to abandon it because the conditions from her point of view were terrible. It is useless quoting the experiences of the pioneers. The Education Department and the Education Boards have to accept conditions as they are at present, and must recognise that in a day when the problem of getting teachers for country schools is very real, the provision of suitable residences is a question which cannot be lightly brushed aside. It is obvious that Canterbury is finding it increasingly difficult to secure teachers for rural schools, and it is from Canterbury that the suggestion comes for a Dominion loan to enable boards to tackle this question by the erection of houses for teachers in the country.