PRIMARY TEACHERS DISSATISFIED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 88, Issue 204, 26 August 1944, Page 4

PRIMARY TEACHERS DISSATISFIED

(P A) Wellington. Aug. 25. Speaking to-day at a meeting of the executive of the New Zealand Educational Institute, on the question of primary teachers' salaries, the president, Mr. J. Barnett, emphasised the difficulties of primary teachers, especially those in the lower grades, ! n balancing their personal budgets. The executive had earlier made very strong representations to the Minister of Education on the subject, emphasis being placed on the increase, during the war years, of the cost of living, with no balancing increase in personal income to meet such cost. This, together with the greatly-lessened fhances of promotion, because of retention in their positions through the war ot eider teachers due to retire, had left a very bleak urospect, especially for younger teachers.

The Minister had obviously been surprised on being informed that many married teachers had been compelled to mortgage insurance policies, and to realise on assets to meet the needs of growing families under a rising cost of living, said Mr. Barnett.

Many married primary teachers had been forced to undertake evening and week-end unskilled labour to supplement their incomes. Such sources of extra income -were rapidlydisappearing with a return to civilian occupations of men from overseas. The executive was gravely concerned regarding the future financial position of their primary school members. To-day. our education system was being criticised in many places, said Mr. Barnett, who added that a prerequisite to an efficient teaching service was one freed from economic worries and problems. He did not believe there was any parent in this country' who expected, or wished, even the youngest teacher, and more especially the married ones, after years of study, to be placed in a disadvantageous position financially, compared with many* of their contemporaries in other less skilled and less responsible positions, he said. He hoped that if stabilisation prevented revision of salary scales, at least, a substantial cost-of-living bonus would be granted by the Government until such time as a revised scale and complete reclassification of the primary service could be introduced more adequate to the needs .of a service which was doing its utmost for the young people of the Dominion. Only then, be concluded, could we hope for the very best recruits to the profession, which, In the interests of the nation, should have only the best.