Teachers upset about policy

Press, 7 February 1986, Page 4

Teachers upset about policy

PA Hamilton Some Waikato teachers may call for stricter Government policy to stop schools accepting Rotary exchange students from South Africa, and campaign through their union for support One Hamilton secondary school teacher opposed to student exchanges with South Africa said he had already heard from more than a dozen Waikato teachers upset at the presence of three white South African students in Waikato and Bay of Plenty. Mr Ross Parsonage said teachers were concerned because previous Rotary exchange students had caused a lot of ill-feeling among staff and other school pupils. Many of them, had made statements support-

ing apartheid while at their host schools, Mr Parsonage said.

“These students come from an education system which is very unequal. It is a system of privilege where about 10 times more a student is spent on white children as opposed to black children,” he said.

“In the last day or so, the South African Education Minister has said quite clearly that there is no way he can foresee an integrated education system in South Africa.”

Mr Parsonage said the present political unrest in South Africa made some teachers even more upset at the presence in New Zealand of the South African students. The three students were invited by the Rotary dis- . trict covering the Waikato

and Bay of Plenty, although other Rotary districts abandoned South African exchanges this year.

This came after an announcement in August, 1984, by Rotary that the South African Government would no longer allow exchange students to come to New Zealand after the closing of its consulate in Wellington. However, Rotary’s district governor for Waikato and Bay of Plenty, Mr lan Johnson, has defended the presence of the South African students in the area.

Mr Johnson said the students were in New Zealand under an exchange only because three New Zealand students had wanted to go to South Africa. He believed the three New Zea-

land exchange students had already left for South Africa.

A spokesman for the Minister of Education’s office said the. Government, through its Immigration Division, had approved the’ entry of the three South African students, but did not encourage this contact.

The “Waikato Times” said it believed the Government’s Immigration Division took more than two months to approve their visas.

The applications were referred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which, the “Waikato Times” said, wanted to check that the visas would not break the new Commonwealth heads of Government agreement on contacts with South Africa, Mr Parsonage he

wished the Government had taken stronger action and refused the students visas. Teachers could ask the Government to take stronger action and stop South African students getting into the country, Mr Parsonage said. “It may be an issue that secondary school teachers wish to promote through the P.P.T.A. and get a stronger policy,” he said. The P.P.T.A., the secondary teachers’ union, opposes student exchanges with South Africa.

In March, 1984, the P.P.T.A. sent letters to all schools recommending that principals, P.P.T.A. branches, and boards of governors stopped participating in the Rotary South Africa exchange scheme after that year.