The older entrant to the teaching service

Abstract

Fundamental to the varied criticisms of the teaching service in New Zealand and overseas are three problems which, through their constant recurrence, seem to be basic. Stated plainly, as seen from within the teaching service, or from the public's point of view, these are: the need for more teachers; the need for better teachers; and the need to retain in the teaching service many who at present leave it after a few years. In a recent Australian survey Cunningham and Morey, 'Children Need Teachers' Australian Council for Educational Research, 1947, P.P.45-45. into the overall problems of teacher supply, the following changes are suggested as necessary to give an improved status to the profession, and thus an improved supply of teachers; increased salary scales, certification of all teachers, better working conditions, more adequate avenues of promotion, greater mobility within the profession, the institution of sabbatical years, and the abolition of the grant. Attention to these matters will, the survey claims, raise the status of the profession, provided the 'right type' of recruit comes forward to enter the training colleges.