UNTRAINED TEACHERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 635, 11 April 1929, Page 16

UNTRAINED TEACHERS

ALMOST A BY-WORD ACCUSATIONS REPEATED Press Association INVERCARGILL, Wednesday. Replying to the criticism of Mr. John Stewart, of Marlborough College, Mr. A. G. Butchers, author of the pamphlet “After Standard IV.—What?’* said that the first essential in a controversy upon educational reorganisation was the maintenance of a calm and judicial attitude of mind. There was no necessity to become excited or to talk in an undignified manner about “giving the lie direct” to criticism offered in good faith and supported by the weight of evidence of experts such as Mr. Frank Tate. In regard to Mr. Stewart’s reported" statement that it is not true that secondary teachers are untrained, Mr. Butchers called attention to the 1924 report of the chief inspector of secondary schools of New Zealand, which j read, “Lack of training among secondary school teachers has become almost a byword.” Mr. Tate, in his report to the New Zealand Education Department in 1925, also said that “a system of training for secondary teachers is urgently needed,” and that “New Zealand has not developed any system of training technical schools teachers.” The majority report of the Syllabus Revision Committee in 192 S said that “no proper provision exists for the training of post-primary teachers.” In conclusion, Mr. Butchers said that too little attention had been paid to Mr. Tate’s report, w’hich was constructive as well as devastating in its criticisms, and was both educationally and economically sound in its practical recommendations.