TEACHERS’ SALARIES COMMISSION.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 8 May 1901, Page 4

TEACHERS’ SALARIES COMMISSION.

Mr Adams continued at Hokitika his criticism of the proposed scale of staffs a -d Silari s.’jJHe reminded the’ Commissioners that it provided for no payments for the training of pupil teachers, but left it opf onal with the Education Boards to arrange the remuneration. This meant, ho contended, that head teachers of schools of (qual size, w n'd, in some parts of the colony, draw from £4O to £6O per annum more than they wo old if engaged in other districts whoso Boards would pay nothirg for the teaching of their pupil teachers, and that this would continue the inequality which at present prevails, and which the scheme professes to remove. Whit that proviso meant, ho said, could bo understood from the fact that in some districts no payments were now made, in others th. y were made on such a icale as £lo per annum for the first pupil teacher, £lO for the second. £5 for the third and £3 for every additional pupil teacher ; while in the Gray district £5 was paid for the firsh £2 for the second, and £1 for each of the rest. Again, house allowance should be pa : d in cash, because then a t-aoher would be enabled and encouraged to provide his pwn residence in accorJ-

anco with his particular requirements, and would not as now is the case, in many places in the Colony, be torcea _ o crowd a large family into a cottage originally intended for two persons. Inspectors ought to be centralised, their itinerary mapped out in Wellington, as is tho case with tho Inspectors of the departments and no Inspector should take tho same circuit twice in succession. Thus tho first Inspector would be checked by tho second, the second by the third and so on, capable teachers would not suffer, as their work would be reported or by the same man from year to year, but by several who would be altogether untrammelled by local considerations and tho eneapablcs would eventually have to retire from the service to the lasting benefit of the pupils and of tho colony. Moreover the teachers would hem fit directly, the children indirectly by tho invaluable assistance rendered by the ablest Inspectors in the country, and somethin" approaching uniformity in tho work of our schools would result from such system. Mr Adams was proceeding to deal trenchently with the examiners, or at least some of the examiner’s for the D and E certificate, who he maintained should not he engaged in coaching the candidates whom they afterwards examined, when the Chairman informed him that this subject did not come within the scope of the Commission, and that therefore it could not bo dealt with. Mr Adams stated that the subject would be brought up in Parliament next session. In reply to questions, he dec’ared that an entirely different syl'abus ought to be prepared for the Te 'C'ors Certificate Examinations, and that the examination for tho highest gradi e'-r'ificatc ought to be made so thoroughly searching and complete in its literary and technic ,! scope, that it would be difficult tor a University graduate to obtain it. (This statement met with the decide 1 approval of some members of tho Commission): and no “partial” pa s ought to bo allowed in any examination. Ho thought that female teachers doing the same work as men shoull have no difference made in their salaries, and that ths salaries pail to the taachsvs of mid lie-class County sch mis should bs sufficient to induce first assistants of town schools to apply for them wi;bout the fear of being unable to bring up a family respectably and comfortably, as is the case at present. This would effect a more general distribution of the best teaching power and children of hardy pioneers who went into the back blocks, instead of as now, being practically penalised for their enterprise, would reap most of the advantages of onr educational system. Mr Adams was also submitted to a series of questions on the staffing of schools.