BAY OF PLENTY BEACON Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, FEB. 9, 1949 HOMES FOR TEACHERS
One of the burdens of those who administer local affairs in a thriving community such as this one is the constant necessity to try to devise means to cope with the fresh problems created by their district’s expansion. Whakatane is over-populated, its housing facilities hopelessly inadequate. The school is overflowing with young New Zealanders demanding the education that is their right. But the school buildings are almost as inadequate as the town’s residential buildings. All that the ingenuity of the teachers and committee can achieve has been done. Further prefabricated accommodation will ease the congestion. More class-rooms, if they do not mean more teachers, will certainly demand no fewer than the school has at present, and there is already a serious danger of losing at least two women!, teachers of they cannot find board here.
Today’s news features a strong appeal from the chairman of the School Committee, Mr* L. D. Lovelock, to local residents to co-operate with the committee in trying to arrange suitable accommodation for two women teachers and a Dental Clinic nurse.
It is essential, -unless the school is to lose something in teaching efficiency, to maintain a full staff, and the maintenance of a decent standard of education is in a way a community responsibility. No school can give the service it should give and turn out the finished product it should turn out unless it has the staff and the facilities to do a good job, any more Than a builder can build a good house without the necessary tools and timber.
Teachers are paid to teach children certain things aimed at making the pupils better, more intelligent citizens. But parents, indeed all public-spirit-ed adults, should do their level best at all times to see that the achievements of the school get full recognition and its teachers full support. Everyone knows there is a desperate shortage of teachers throughout the country. . Most will admit that our standard of education is showing the effects of that shortage, and few will argue with the proposition that we should do everything possible to retain the services of the teachers we have.
Surely there are some homes in this town with spare bedrooms?
Surely some of the owners and occupiers of those places with spare accommodation are kindhearted and public-spirited?
All of which does not mean that the Beacon does not still think it would be a good idea if all interested local organisations pressed the Government, through its own Departments with accommodation problems, to assist in the building of a hostel to help overcome Whakatane’s desperate boarding situation.
Such a hostel could be run on economic, even profitable, lines, and would be of inestimable value to the whole community.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BPB19490209.2.9
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 51, 9 February 1949, Page 4
Word count
Tapeke kupu
467BAY OF PLENTY BEACON Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, FEB. 9, 1949 HOMES FOR TEACHERS Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 51, 9 February 1949, Page 4
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Beacon Printing and Publishing Company is the copyright owner for the Bay of Plenty Beacon. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Beacon Printing and Publishing Company. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.