ORGANISING TEACHERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 October 1921, Page 5

ORGANISING TEACHERS.

THE REDUCTION IN TARANAKI. JUSTIFIED BY THE MINISTER. (Special to Daily News.) Hawera, Last Night. The proposed reduction in the number of organising teachers in Taranaki was referred to by the Minister of Education (the Hon. C. J. Parr) in an interview with a Daily News reporter. “The impression sought to be created in the province that injury is Being done by reducing the staff from four to two is entirely without foundation,” said the Minister. “The truth is that the organising teachers are at present both unfairly and unequally distributed between the different boards’ districts. For instance, Auckland has only three organising teachers to look after 194 teachers who are below average merit and unqualified. Taranaki has four organising teachers to look after 14 teachers who are below average merit. Of the other districts Wellington and Nelson have only two each to attend to more inefficient teachers than there are in Taranaki. Taranaki is easily the smallest education hoard district in the North Island. Auckland has 681 schools, whereas Taranaki has only 160. Wellington, Hawke’s Bay, and Wanganui have each considerably more schools than Taranaki.

“When I say that you have no less than four organising teachers to assist 14 inefficient teachers that is the plain truth. It is true, however, that your four organising teachers are attending, not to 14, but to 61 teachers in your district. I have examined the records and reports of these 61 teachers, and I find that 10 of them are reported upon as good, and 26 as satisfactory. Another eleven are also good. Out of 48, 47 are either appraised by the inspectors as good or satisfactory. No less than 9 of these teachers are fully qualified. It was not intended that the Government should find organising teachers to assist teachers of this calibre. “The function of the organising teacher is to assist the inefficient teacher only. It comes to this: Compared with other districts the organising teacher movement is completely overdone in Taranaki, and I assert positively that two good organising teachers will be sufficient to attend to the wants of the back-blocks in this district. Fears that back-blocks education will be injured are groundless. Such fears have been created in a certain quarter for political purposes only. The new distribution will be three organising teachers for Auckland to look after 194 inefficient teachers; two for Taranaki, to look after 14 such teachers; two in Wanganui, to supervise 30 inefficient teachers; and two in Hawke’s Bay and in Wellington to attend to a similar number.”