DISMISSAL OF TEACHERS

Taranaki Daily News, 26 November 1934, Page 7

DISMISSAL OF TEACHERS

SCHOOLS’ DOWN-GRADING

EXCLUSION OF FIVE-YEAR-OLDS. WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION PROTESTS. POSITION VIEWED WITH ALARM. Alarm at the position created through the exclusion of the five-year-old children from admission to school was expressed at New Plymouth on Saturday at a meeting of the Taranaki Women Teachers’ Association. After a full discussion the following motion was passed: “That the women teachers .of Taranaki view with grave alarm the position created mainly by the legislation excluding five-year-old children from admission to school, whereby numerous schools have fallen in grade and various assistants of long service have received three months’ notice of dismissal. The Taranaki branch urges the Minister to promote immediate legislatipn to alleviate the situation.” The Taranaki Education Board had been faced with the problem'of finding positions for two grade 2 women teachers, stated the acting-chairman, Mr. J. A. Valentine. In one case, through the resignation of another woman teacher similarly graded they had been successful, but in the other they had had no option, under departmental rules, but to give notice of dismissal. “It is unfortunate,” he said, “that a teacher who has given many years of service to the board and who is thoroughly competent, should have to have her career terminated so summarily, but We, as a board, have ho choice in the matter.”

Members of the teaching profession at New Plymouth when interviewed upon the question of the grading systern were of the opinion that it had not worked badly as a whole, but the regulations took too little cognisance of local conditions, arid their rigid enforcement led to injustices. Overmuch changing of teachers upset the continuity' of educational policy and of instruction, and many primary school children were suffering as a result of the present grading system. A more simple arrangement would have to be evolved before efficiency was obtained, remarked one man. DANGER OF PRESENT SYSTEM. The .danger of the present system was that the openings for the young men and women were not sufficient to make teaching an attractive profession, . said one master prominent iri Taranaki. He foresaw that ifl a few years there would be a distinct lack of higher graded school officers, because many men were abandoning teaching if they found art opportunity and the women were turning to marriage even more than usual. He knew of several cases where school teaching had been given up because it was considered a profession offering inadequate chances of advancement. If a school dropped a grade, he continued, the headmaster had the option of leaving for a larger school or of remaining where he was at a reduced salary. Apart from the fact that many teachers had established themselves in the town where they worked and that the business of breaking up the home and uprooting the family was unpleasant, the Government did not offer much inducement to change. Allowance for transport was rigily limited, so that though furniture might be transferred at the State’s expense, necessities such as lawn-mowers and the like did not come under that category.

One Taranaki master whose case he quoted had been transferred to the north, but he preferred to remain at his old school at reduced salary. He had only a year or two to work before he reached superannuation age, and the difficulties of moving would riot compensate him for increased payments. A further penalty was imposed upon him for refusing to accept the higher position. The superannuation grant was estimated upon salary over latter years of service, and therefore was correspondingly diminished when the master stayed at a lower grade school.