RATIONING OF TEACHERS

Taranaki Daily News, 20 July 1933, Page 7

RATIONING OF TEACHERS

BOARD CONSIDERS PROTESTS MORE SUITABLE SCHEME SOUGHT. EMPLOYMENT OF ALL SUGGESTED.

DEPARTMENT TO BE APPROACHED.

Protests raised against the system of rationed teachers in primary schools were brought before the Taranaki Education Board yesterday, and members of the board concurred in their expression of opposition to the scheme. Proposals were put forward by Mr. J. A. Valentine for the full year’s employment of rationed teachers and the matter of making representations to the Minister regarding a more suitable scheme was left in the hands of the chairman (Mr. S. G. Smith, M.P.) and the deputychairman (Mr. J. A. Valentine). A copy of the resolution is to be forwarded to the committees of the Central and West End schools.

A copy of the motion of protest carried by the West End committee was forwarded by the committee, which expressed the hope that the board would do its utmost for “these unfortunate extrainees.” A copy of a similar motion passed by the Central committee was also forwarded to the board. A further letter on the subject was received from Mr. F. A. Coleman, chairman of the Central committee. Since the passing of the resolution forwarded from his committee, he wrote, the actingMinister of Education had replied to the criticism of the committee. The committee was in entire accord with the condemnation of the scheme by its experienced headmaster. Whether education boards and teachers’ institutes approved of the scheme could well be dealt with by those bodies.-"CLEVERLY-WORDED REPLY.” “In his cleverly worded reply,” the letter continued, “the Minister has sidestepped the true import of our protest—the great injustice to the children caused by the rationing system. In our school this year we have had six rationed teachers and we are only in the second term. Such teacher is employed at the munificent remuneration of £25 net per term, or at the rate of £75 per annum. My committee makes this protest believing that the education of our children should be the first consideration and is so important that it cannot be entirely governed by £ s. d. “Our proposal against the present system, which is lowering the efficiency of the work of the school, has met with the . approval of a large number of parents of pupils attending the school, and we consider that it is the duty of the department to make itself acquainted with the serious effects of the scheme and supply a remedy in which the interests of the children are made the first consideration.”

Mr. W. H. Jones, who is a member of the West End committee, said he thought the protest was timely as ihtre was a danger of precedents becoming institutions. “Commonsense tells us it must be very difficult for the child to adjust itself to three different teachers throughout the year, particularly if those - teachers are in charge of lower classes,” he said. “It must also be difficult for the headmaster. This scheme came about through the number ot unemployed teachers and the fact that there was not sufficient finance to employ them all. It is really making a virtue of necessity.” . Mr. Jones expressed the opinion that some scheme could be devised whereby :all unemployed teachers could be employed for the whole year. The chairman (Mr. S. G. Smith): We have already told the department that if it will give us the same amount of' money to expend as we have now but give us a free hand in the method of spending it we will employ every teacher. I think we could employ all teachers on the rationed, list all the year, but not at the ordinary rates of pay. It might be about £5O or £6O a year. But .a teacher working all the year at £6O a year will be better off than if he were working only three months, as he would be gaining experience. PAYMENT OF TEACHERS. Mr. Smith pointed out further that the acting-Minister did not make it clear that rationed teachers were being paid not £lOO a year but at the rate of £lOO a year. In reality the net receipts of rationed teachers at £7 10s a month were £2B 2s lid each term. The acting senior inspector (Mr. J. A. Henry) quoted figures of examination result supplied by the headmasters of schools interested which, he claimed, showed that children suffered little disadvantage from the changes occasioned by the rationed teacher system. He also pointed out an error in Mr. Coleman’s letter, in that there had been only four rationed teachers at Central and not six. The other two were relieving teachers. The system was an expediency which schools ha.', been putting up with, Mr. Jones said, but they should not have to put up with it for long. It constituted an injustice to the children, a difficulty to the headmaster and an injustice to the rationed teachers. The board had had numbers of applications from unemployed teachers who were willing to work f6r nothing in order to obtain experience, but they were not allowed to do this. The board should take a broad allround view of the question, said Mr. J. A. Valentine. The scheme had been in operation for two years and it was devised in the first place in the interests of the many unemployed trained teachers. There were about 900 of them and the training of each one was estimated to have cost about £3OO, so that that sum was lying idle while the teachers were out of work. The scheme had been attacked by headmasters, and rightly so from their point of view, Mr. Valentine said. But he thought the headmasters measured the success of the scheme by their standards of promotion—the ability of the children to pass examinations. Mr. N. R. McKenzie, formerly senior inspector in Taranaki, used to say the change of teachers and that the average evil effect on the children as was said. “I am convinced that the pupil over the average is not hindered by the change of teachers and that the aevrage pupil will attain promotion, though the pupil below the average may suffer, he added. “No headmaster would say the scheme is a barren failure. Some pupils would not make much progress under any teacher. But I think no-one in his right senses would defend the scheme as If the department would hand to the board the money involved in Taranaki, which he understood would be about £3OOO, the board could make provision for all unemployed teachers in Taranaki There were about 80 in Taranaki and 67 could be given work while the rest would be available for reliewing positions for which provision must be made. That, he thought, was a definite constructive scheme which might be suggested to the department. Two other suggestions were also made by Mr. Valentine. department might also be asked to allow the board to set aside a number of junior positions for Taranaki’s own unemployed teachers. That might prevent undue shifting of teachers from one district to another. More teachers might also be employed

and the size of the larger classes so reduced.

These three suggestions could be made to the Minister with a view to reducing the number of unemployed teachers and at the same time increasing the efficiency of schools. Mr. Henry pointed out that if all unemployed teachers were to be given work most of them would have to be in the country, and that would involve boarding allowance. Further protests against many of the statements made about rationed teachers were made by Mr. Henry. “For a headmaster to say that children are being sacrificed on the altar of rationed teachers is nonsense,” he said.

Mr. Smith: I will say it. I feel so strongly over this question that I think the board ought to clear it up lyMr. W. B. Glasgow said he did not think it was a fact that children were being sacrificed. That was too strong a term. He agreed that the rationed scheme was not a good one and the proposals suggested should be made to the department. Mr. Valentine’s suggestions, however, were not the most satisfactory way out of the situation. Mr. Smith: That is not the point. These are rationed teachers. It is nothing more than relief work. There was a scheme proposed for the employment of teachers on school grounds in .the No. 5 scheme and from that came this scheme. It must be looked on as relief work. If after suffering the scheme for two years we can suggest a scheme that will be an improvement we ought to attack it from that angle. It should be made clear that the £lOO is the rate at which rationed teachers are paid but that very few teachers have been employed for three terms. If we are going to sit down, under this we may as well accept all relief schemes as with us for ever. With reference to the opinion of Mr. Henry that change of teachers was not of serious import to the children Dr. W. M. Thomson said that in his own experience it was. There must be many cases, he thought where children were severely handicapped from the start of their school life.