TEACHERS' SALARIES.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1952, 8 January 1914, Page 6

TEACHERS' SALARIES.

EFFICIENCY AND SERVICE. (By TelezriDh.—Press Association.) Auckland, January 7. Tlio Now Zealand Educational Institute discussed tlio salary question today when the Executive, moved the following remit: "That, in tho proposed Education Act, the substitution of some better basis than attendance for computation of salaries be made." In moving tho remit Mr. H. A. Parkinson (Wellington) said that they had readied the point which they oculd reasonably ask that-teachers should bo paid, not according to length of service or attendance, but according to the, value of their work. They hoped to get a grading system that would nlaco tho teacher as near as possible in his right- situation on tho professional ladder and pay him accordingly. If this scheme were, adopted the. Stato would pay the man and not.tho position. In outlining his scheme, the speaker said that the schools of tho Dominion would be divided into different grades and to each grade teachers would be drafted according to their merit. Grading would be decided by tho inspectors. Under the scheme, a teacher would bo made independent of aiiy elements in his social environment and would be immune from loss through a decrease in the-average roll.

Mr. 0. D. Flamank (Otago), in seconding the remit, said that though last ,vear he supported a scheme for the payment of salaries based on the average roll, ho was now convinced that a satisfactory schcino would bo formulated without reference to attendance at all. An amendment was moved by Mr. J. Kelly (Otago) that computation of salary should bo based on efficiency and service. All people, he said, wero creatures of circumstances, but particularly so wore- teachers, for they suffered from circumstances over which they had no control. Mr. Duggan (Hawke's Bay), in seconding the amendment, said that a sonso of injustice was felt by the majority of country teachers. The country could not do otherwise than affect efficiency of their work. The amendment was carried by 34 votos to 22. , I At a later stage in the proceedings the following remit, forwarded by tho Hwko's Bay Institute, was adopted: "That this institute regrets that it was found impossible for Parliament to deal witU the salary ouestion last year, and considers that tho now scheme, when approved in 1914, should be made retrospective and operative as from I January 1, 1014."