AN UNFORTUNATE MISTAKE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3146, 26 July 1917, Page 6

AN UNFORTUNATE MISTAKE

HOW TEACHERS ARE DISCOURAGED .The case of two pupil teachers at the .■Wellington-Teachers'. Training College, from-districts outside Wellington, who, through some misapprehension, had been' given the A grant (.i'fa's a year) instead of the B grant (.Mb a year), and who, after six months have been informed by the Department, through the board, that their grants must be reduced; caiiie before the Education Board yesterday. The chairman said that the certificates had ieen given the girjs under' a misapprehension and they had got the higher gi-ant instead of the B grant. The position was regrettable, and most unfortunate, as the board was in desperate need of .teachers at the present time, and found it an increasingly difficult matter to fill vacancies. The teachers in Question said that they would not be able to accept the lower grant—they' would simply have to give up the prospect of becoming teachers. The secretary (Mr.' G. L. Stewart) said that Mr. Tennant was,quite satisfied with their work at the college. The chairman said that the Department had been appealed to in the matter and it had stated that there was no process in law by which any change could be made in respect to these teachers. Mr. Rishworth thought that it was a scandalous thing that these girls should be allowed to go on for some time at the college, and to be then informed that their grant must be reduced through a technical mistake on the part of one of the Department's officials. It was rather a good thing that there was such a thing as tho board to come between the teuchers and the unsentimental .head of a Department. The whole thing was without reason or sense. The chairman said ho could only suggest that the boards concerned might be asked to make up the difference in the money. The Department's answer was quite final. Mr. Rishworth said that ho hoped it was the intention of the board to call the attention of the Department to its puerile action, and that a strong protest be made against such methods of keening teachers out of the service.