UNEMPLOYED TEACHERS.

Southland Times, Issue 21429, 25 June 1931, Page 3

UNEMPLOYED TEACHERS.

To the Editor.

Sir, —At a recent meeting of the Southland School Committees’ Association Mr F. G. Stevenson showed his practical sympathy for our young unemployed teachers. I wish to thank him for his efforts and may he be successful in making the Education Department realize the appalling situation it has allowed to develop. Wc have 45 young men and women highly educated, full of energy and enthusiasm living on the charity of parents and friends. In December another 30 conclude their probationary assist antship, to add to this number of unemployed while in Dunedin Training College there are 63 Southland students in their first and second year of training. If these 45 cannot secure positions anywhere from Auckland to the Bluff what of these others ? Yet the department allowed 24 probationers to enter the profession this year! I quote only Southland’s figures and if every Education Board in the Dominion is in a similar plight—well some deep thinking needs to be done! If every student costs the department £2lO to train, Southland is costing the country some £6OOO per annum to train unemployed. A costly business! And it’s still going on and indirectly the taxpayer is footing the bill. We have in Wellington a department of highly paid officials whose duty it is to run the educational matters of our country in an efficient and economical manner and how have they done it ? By running it into a brick wall of unemployment, so high they cannot see over it. Authorities admit they have seen it coming, but they sat still and like Micawber waited for “something to turn up” to avoid the crash. Consolidation—that penny-wise and pound foolish scheme—did not help in keeping positions open for teachers for where two or three small schools were closed and the pupils sent to a larger centre, that staff , was increased by one assistant and positions had to be found for the other teacher or teachers as the case may be. Then the practice of the so-called economy

also reduced staffs in the larger schools, so making the lot of junior teachers a little harder by closing the positions of special assistants to them.

The question of married women teachers is difficult, but out of kindness she ought to step out and give the younger people a sporting chance to get their feet on the bottom rung of the ladder. I hope no selfish motive but only sheer necessity will prevent these women from acting as good sports.

A correspondent, “Farmer’s Daughter,” made comparison between a married woman teacher as help to her husband and a shopkeeper or farmer’s wife, son or daughter. In my opinion these are not comparable for that farmer’s wife or family by helping on the farm to the best of their ability are only doing their duty besides helping to keep the cost of production down. Cheaper cost ot living cannot be achieved unless we have a lower cost of production. Another point she missed was that neither of those women was working in a different sphere than her husband. The efforts of those families are all for the same end—to make a living off farm or shop. The married woman teacher has a husband in a different profession and if he cannot be a njan and shoulder his responsibilities he should have remained single. There are cases where it is imperative for the woman to be the wageearner, but not in the majority of cases. Is there any other Government department where so many married women are employed, may I ask? I hope a clause will be inserted that debars a woman resuming teaching after’ marriage unless under extreme circumstances of necessity.

Something drastic will have to be done and that soon, for this year’s problem is nothing to what is ahead. Could not the training colleges be closed to students for five years and utilized as schools of instruction for refresher courses in modern methods of teaching to benefit the older members of the profession, those whose college days are of the dim past? As long as colleges are open students will continue to train and swell the rising numbers of the unemployed. This year’s probationers could be made to serve another year and so give one year’s relief to competition for “jobs,” and by that time some solution may be evolved to assist these young folk. I am in full sympathy with their position for it seems needless striving and denial on the part of everyone. The salary of probationers this year is £6 per month and that is for a period of three years. Can any boy -or girl pay 22/6 per week board, clothe themselves, buy books for study and all incidental expenses (tram fares etc.) in Dunedin and be without assistance' from parents? I don’t think so. In this time of depression this often entails sacrifice in the home. If there were a brighter prospect of steady work after all this hard study and sacrifice, all would be well, but for young men and women to have to continue living on parents and friends while bound by the bond of service of five or seven years, is only thrusting temptation in their path for Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do. With no work of their own to absorb their energies its an almost certainty that there will be some who drift from the narrow path. Mr Stevenson also said at that meeting that the department had not kept pact with these service-bound students by accepting their bond and giving them no work in return. Another body who has not kept pact with them is the Teachers’ Institute, an organization supposed to work in the welfare of all teachers who are members. These young people are circularized by the institute and the so-called benefits of membership are emphasized (and it reads quite well). So in the hope of help when needed, these trusting souls join up and pay fees often ill-afforded. Now they are needing influential help in high places and are.they getting it? Not from the institute. It is doing nothing and as an educational body surely some way of using the services of these unemployed members could be suggested to our Minister of Education by the institute and show that it is not taking money and giving nothing in return —not even sympathy. Will our Minister of Education prove his worth by attempting to create a better state of affairs, and “economize” in a practical way bv ceasing to cost the country thousands of pounds in educating unemployed. Ten per cent, cut in salaries will not remedy this situation, but a man of high courage, endowed with wisdom could surely do much to help in this crisis. Have we a man so endowed? Time will tell.—l am, etc., . SYMPATHISER.