"A HARDY ANNUAL."

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 223, 20 September 1928, Page 18

"A HARDY ANNUAL."

TEACHING STAFF CHANGES.

DISPOSAL or SCHOOL FUNDS.

MEETING OF COMBINED

COMMITTEES,

Described as a hardy annual, the question of the frequent changes made to teaching staffs was discussed at the quarterly meeting of the Auckland School Committees' Association last evening. It was agreed to support a remit from the Royal Oak Committee urging the association to forward a strong protest to the education authorities against the numerous changes; and a committee consisting of Mrs. Bloodworth and Messrs. G. Brownlee, H. H. Newton and S. E. Chappell was appointed to endeavour to find a remedy to prevent the unsatisfactory position that was created. Speakers contended that the repeated alterations to staffing were detrimental to the education of the children, and disheartening to the teachers. It was further suggested that teachers should be retained at one institution for at least two years. The chairman (Mr. G. E. Spooner) thought the time was opportune for a committee to formulate some scheme to get over the present difficulties, and report back to the association as a whole. It was likely that the recommendations they brought down would prove helpful to the Department and Board of Education. "A Mare's Nest." "School committees are professional cadgers at the present time," said a member when a suggestion from the Wellington Association that a protest should be made against the regulation that was to be introduced requiring committees to pay into their general account moneys raised through their own efforts, was under discussion. "The Act distinctly says that any money raised from tennis courts cannot be subsidised." The Chairman: It is apparently the intention of the Department to force committees to place those moneys in the general account. Rev. W. C. Wood (Papakura) said his School Committee handled £300, and the Department did not interfere with it in any way. .He thought the whole matter was a mare's nest. The association had no information as to the proposed change, and he desired to know why it should jump the fence before it camo to it. To date the Department had not interfered in any shape or form with funds raised by school committees for special purposes. Ultimately the executive was instructed to inquire further into the matter, and report to the next meeting of the association. Link with League of Nations. A letter from the Rotorua School Committe urging that the association consider the question of giving the

League of Nations Union practical support for the benefit of the children* was given sympathetic consideration, and referred to the executive for further investigation.

Eev. W. C. Wood said that, while everyone was in sympathy with the League of Nations movement, it was difficult to know how the children could be brought into contact with the organ' isation. Boy scouts and girl guides movements were at present fulfilling many of its ideals.