TEACHER AND HIS PAY

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2171, 9 June 1914, Page 6

TEACHER AND HIS PAY

,board's Annual report. CIVIL SERVICE RATES COMPARED. • In accordance. with the requirements of tho Education Act, 1008, tho chairman of , tho.. Wellington . Education Board (Mr. It. Lee), has prepared an annual report for submission to the Minister of Education. Dealing with entrance to tho teaching service, Mr. Leo says: "My board approves your intention of passing this year an amending Act. It urges the removal, in a spirit at onco just and generous, of every rensonablo ground of dissatisfaction - with tho conditions of employment of-teachers. A remark of the collogo' principal that the number of male' 'students is not sufficient to maintain the present proportion of'molo teachers directs attention to a possiblo problem of tho future, and raises. the Question whether tho inducements to enter the profession aro sufficient. My board considers that tho. reply must be in tho negative so far as men at least are concerned. The teaching service is now suffering .from the keen competition of the Public Service, and of various forms of commercial and manufacturing enterprise for' youths of real ability. The Public Service Commissioners recognise that capable youths must he attracted to the Public Service, and it may bq assumed that the scale of rernunoratioYi is not more than will, in existing circumstances, meet their requirements. Public Service Salaries. "Here is tho scale (see second and third schedules, Public Service Commissioner's Regulations) Clerical Division:—First year, £50 (where lodging allowance is claimed add £25); second year, -£o5 (£23 lodging allowance); third year, £80 (£lB lodging allowance):; fourth year, £06 (lodging allowance £13); fifth year, £110 (no allowance). ' Professional Division.—First year, £70 (£lB allowance); second year, £85 (£l3 allowance); tliird yearj £100 (£8 allowance); fourth' year, £120; fifth j'car, "£MO.

Education Salaries. Oifiitting the first year pupil teacher, whose minimum qualification was the proficiency certificate, the corresponding figures for the pupil teacher and student in training arc: — Pupil Teacher.—Firjt year, £34 (£ls boarding allowance) ; second year, £45 (£lO allowance); third' year, £55 (£5 allowance). .'■■■' 1 Student in Training.—First year, £30 (£3O boarding allowance); second year, £30 (£3O allowance). ' The probationer received £25 for tho first year, and £30 for the second year, with lodging allowance, if away-from home, of-£3O, and then enters the Training College on conditions set forth above for. the pupil, teacher., "Uwer Paid ServictTMusf Suffer." "A careful 1 study of' the abovtr figures leads to the conclusion cither that in the Department of Education' the service rendered is of smaller value than in the Public Service, or that, if not of iess value, then the monetary inducements to enter tho education scrvico should, be considerably increased; and further, that tho' lower paid service must suffer. Now,..it,can.,hardly..,be. maintained that, training, the and the character required k of th'o youth entering tho teaching profession are" oho whit less tlian'tor nearly' every" branch of tho Public Service. If it be said that the country cannot afford to pay. more; the answer, if my board understands .the mind of tho people of this country, is that it cannot afford to pay less 'than is just, and particularly it cannot afford to pay less than will in the long run secure the most efficient service; and' that tho inducements 'to enter should be certainly not less than-those offered to enter the Public Service. In short, uJaiinitMliyßcipncyln the. education service is-a vital necessity;'' seeing it means-' increased output, if' you .will—in.every, kind of , human activity wherein- intelligence is a factor of success."-