TEACHERS AND DEGREES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18546, 21 August 1928, Page 10

TEACHERS AND DEGREES.

To The Editor. Dear Sir,—l was very pleased to see in your paper the remarks made by Professor Conway regarding the school teachers of New Zealand. The selfcomplacency of our country over its educational system needs to be given a few rude shocks to wake it from the lethargy into which it fell some twenty years ago. Because the pioneers put us slightly ahead of some other parts of the world, we have been content to rest on what they accomplished while other lands have progressed steadily and far outpaced us. It is good to hear some outspoken criticism from such a man as Professor Conway, for, it is to be feared, foreign visitors whose criticism would be respected are too often too gently polite. Certainly anyone who knows anything of the class of person at present entering the teaching profession has much cause for disgust, if not despair. As always, there are exceptions, but it is no exaggeration to say that teaching is attracting all the .lower grades of the product of our secondary schools. The qualifications for entry into the profession are so slight, the immediate financial return, easy hours, frequent holidays and lax Training College discipline are so attractive that every youngster with a few brains but no ambition, whose parents have supported him through high school, sees the teaching profession as a real, gilt-edged, lazy man’s job. This class would have their uses, but surely the education of the young generation should be entrusted to the best our land can produce. As it is, teaching offers so little hope of advancement through merit, and such small remuneration to fully-qualified teachers, that our best youth turn away from it, no matter how strongly they are attracted to it as a congenial occupation, and as an avenue of service to their country. The mere prospect of having to pass thiough the training colleges as at present constituted is more than enough to choke them off.

Perhaps, under repeated criticisms from such men as Professor Conway, we will begin to think seriously of education, even at the expense of a few* of the thousands of pounds which our Government is now happily casting into the mud-flats of Singapore.—l am, etc., D.E.K.