BENEFIT TO SCHOOLS

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 117, 15 February 1928, Page 10

BENEFIT TO SCHOOLS

“SUBSTITUTED ASSISTANTS” TEMPORARY. PHASE OF, NEW SCHEME Employment of “substituted ants” is'a temporary, phase only in the' development of the new scheme fo‘ me training of school teachers, according o a reply, issued by the Education Department yesterday, to the criticism on the subject delivered at Monday's meeting of the School Committees’ Association. ... , “The Wellington School C»mnuttees Association is much concerned over the fact that ‘substituted assistants are appointed till they can obtain permanent positions, and as there is some misapprehension it is necessaiy to explain the position from the Departments point of view,” runs the statement. “Up to three years ag> there were on the staffs of all the firger schools a number of pupil teachers —-young persons who were appointed -straight, from the hij'h schools without teaching experience. It was then decided to replace these pupil teachers by ‘probationary assistants, 1 young teachers who had spent at least one year as probationers in the schools, fojowed by two years in a training colleye, and who have had considerable practice in teaching and special training for their work. Young teachers alter passing through the traming college must now as part of their course of framing spend at least a year in leaching in one of the larger schools in the capacity of probationary assistants and are much more useful members’of tie staffs than the inexperienced pupil teachers whom they replace. The schools benefit considerably by this new system, and the Department should receive some credit for a change that provides an assistant capable of taking chaige of a class, in place of a pupil teacher who, as a rule, was only a supernumerary on the staff. / “A Great Improvement.” ' “But the change can only be introduced gradually, and is not yet in full operation because the full number of probationary assistants required to replace pupil teachers is not yet available. It is therefore necessary at present to fill some of the places of pupil teachers by ether young teachers who are out of employment, and these are known as ‘substituted assistants.’ They are generally certificated teachers who have completed their course of training, and therefore more experienced than probationary assistants, but they are desirous of obtaining permanent positions, and therefore it would not be fair to them to compel them to remain a year in the positions. Probationary assistants must, however, remain a full year, and the School Committees’ Association is in error in assuming that they may leave during the vear. Next year it is hoped to have available a full supply of probationary assistants so that, the new system will be in full operation. “The school committees are unnecessarily alarmed when they say t-iat ,the arrangement is ‘monstrous,’ or that ‘the whole school is ‘unsettled’ because a teacher leaves one of the classes in the middle of the year. The present system, which replaces a pupil teacher by a fullv trained substituted assistant or a probationary assistant, is a great., improvement on the previous provision, even if that assistant should be changed during the year, and when the new system is fully established the schools will be much more strongly staffed than formerly.” “Employment of ‘substituted assistants’ is a temporary phase only in the development of a new scheme for the training of. teachers. As soon as this scheme is in full operation, probationary assistants who have just left training college will be available for a complete year’s service in the schools.”