A growing program of sharing of teachers by all day Jewish schools with Talmud Torahs has made possible a substantial improvement in the quality of teaching in such afternoon schools, Dr. Joseph Kaminetsky, National Director of Torah Umesorah, the National Society for Hebrew Day Schools, reported today. He told the fourth annual convention of the National Conference of Yeshiva Principals that Hebrew day schools in 35 cities had shared faculty members with Talmud Torahs during the school year which ended last month.
He said that despite rising wage scales and fringe benefits, afternoon schools in non-metropolitan areas, which must import teachers because they have no local teacher-training facilities, have great difficulties in getting qualified teachers. Although such schools offer a starting salary of $6, 000 for a ten-month teaching year of 15 hours a week, plus fringe benefits, they have found it almost impossible to attract young, American-born college-trained teachers.
Dr. Kaminetsky said that the sharing arrangement benefits both schools. It makes it possible for the day school to offer a teacher the possibility of earning up to $9, 000 a year in salaries from the two schools and for the Talmud Torah to get teachers with a level of training otherwise generally not known in the Talmud Torah field.
He said more than a dozen additional communities had reported plans to use such teacher-sharing programs in the school year starting in September.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
