ORGANISING TEACHERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 October 1921, Page 6

ORGANISING TEACHERS.

THEIR DISTRIBUTION. POSITION IN TARANAKI. (From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) Wellington, October 12. A statement regarding the number of organising teachers in the Dominion and their distribution among the various districts was made by the Minister of Education (Hon. C. J. Parr) in the Mouse yesterday. Mr. Parr explained that his statement was principally a reply to observations made by the members for Stratford and Taranaki respectively. Mr. Parr said he found that a proposal of the Education Department to make a reduction in the staff of organising teachers had been criticised, particularly in Taranaki. It had been suggested that the Government was doing a serious injury to education in the backblocks. He hoped that he would be able to convince the House that it would be impossible for the department to leave the position as it was at the moment. The -office of an organising teacher was to go through to the school of a weak or inefficient teacher and assist the teacher for perhaps a week by demonstrating how the work could be better performed. Recently the Director of Education had looked into the record of the teachers she had assisted. The education boards appointed the organising teachers, and they had been allowed to appoint pretty well as many as they pleased. The department paid the salaries. The result of the system was that a most unequal and unfair distribution of the organising teachers had taken place. The directors reported that in Auckland, which was the largest district, and had altogether 671 schools, there were four organising teachers to assist 194 teachers who were below average merit or unclassified. In Taranaki, the smallest district, with only 160 schools, there were the same number of organising teachers to assist 14 teachers. Wanganui had four organisers to assist 31 teachers; Hawke’s Bay, three to assist 22; Wellington, two to assist 30; Nelson, three to assist 32; Canterbury, four to assist only 13; Otago (which had been the subject of some references), three to assist four; Southland, two to assist 36. The House would realise that it was impossible to leave the distribution in such an unfair state. If the staffing of Taranaki with organising teachers were taken as the proper basis, it would be necessary to double the organising staff of New Zealand, at a time at which economy in every department was being insisted upon. He’ had looked into the qualifications of the teachers in the Taranaki district who were being assisted. Asthe had stated there were only fourteen teachers who were certified by the ordinary inspectors to be below the average, but one found that the Taranaki organising teachers were attending to the wants of some 61 teachers. On examination of the records, it appeared that nine were certified and that of the nine eight were reported by the inspectors to be good teachers. Did the member for the- district suggest that it was the function of the State to provide not only ordinary inspectors* visits but also visits' of organising teachers to assist teachers who had been reported on as good? Reporting on 48 of the 61 teachers. the director stated that 10 were marked “very good,” 26 “satisfactory,” and eleven “good.” Thus out of 43 teachers in Taranaki 47 were reported upon by the inspectors as either good or satisfactory, and these teachers who were so reported on were receiving assistance from the organising teachers. He was afraid the department would have to insist on a redistribution, and he submitted that the redistribution would not be found unfair. So far as the North Island was concerned, the proposal was that Auckland should retain three organising teachers; that, Taranaki should have two; Wanganui, two; Hawke's Bay, two; Wellington,

two. The member for Stratford (Mr. Masters) had claimed that Taranaki had special handicaps in making use of its organising teachers on account of the state of the roads and the difficulties in the wav of travelling from one school to the 'other. The difficulty was not peculiar to Taranaki. The chief inspector reported that the condition of the roads did not affect the number of organising teachers needed in a district, since the organising teacher’s headquarters were placed within fairly easy reach of the schools to be visited, and the organising te’acher did not require to travel more than once or twice a The Minister concluded with the assertion that no injury was being done to the backblocks.