TEACHERS NEED PRIVATE BOARD AT WHAKATANE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 51, 9 February 1949, Page 5

TEACHERS NEED PRIVATE BOARD AT WHAKATANE

Unless private board is found for teachers at Whakatane the District High School is going to remain short of staff, and the pupils will not be able to receive the instruction to which they are entitled. This was pointed out by the chairman of the school committee, Mr L. D. Lovelock, yesterday. There is a desperate shortage of teachers throughout the country and Whakatane is no exception. Teachers can be brought into the town to relieve the work of the present staff but there is no accommodation, so the committee has ap>pealed for private board. Children Will Suffer

Mr Lovelock said that if the required 'accommodation could not be found the teachers could not remain at the school. If this happens the ones who will suffer will be the children and the present teaching staff.

Fewer subjects would be taught, the classes would be larger, wiith the result that a bigger burden would be thrown on the teachers who remain here. They would not be able to give much attention to any one pupil because of the size of the classes, which is not desirable. “The school is entitled to a certain number of teachers which, at present, it does not have,” Mr Lovelock added. “The children are entitled to a certain amount of instruction, which they cannot and will not receive if there are not the teachers available to give it.

Private Accommodation “We can have the number of teachers we require, if we can provide accommodation, and the only people who can provide it in the town are the people of Whakatane. We want private board and anyone who can offer it for teachers will be doing the district a service.”

Up to yesterday afternoon the committee had not received any offers of accommodation.