E,-A

35

Salaries and Status of Secondary-school Teachers. (Table K3 in E.-6.) The total annual amount of salaries of teachers in secondary schools (excluding Wanganui Collegiate and Christ's College Grammar Schools) as at the rate payable in December, 1919, was £.12(5,694, as compared with £95,137 in. 1918. The value of residences and of board and residence provided in a large number of cases is not included in this figure. The cost of the salaries works out at £14-8 per head of the average attendance, ranging in the various schools from £11-8 to £19-5. The cost in boys' schools was £15-4 per head, in girls' schools £13-6 per head, and in mixed schools, £15-9 per head. The following figures indicate the average rates of salary prevailing ii 1914, 1918, and 1919. The exclusion of the two schools referred to above (where the salaries are high) from the 1919 figures places that year at a slight disadvantage in the comparison. Average Salaries op Full-time Teachers in Secondary Schools , 1914.- , , 1918. , , 1919. , M. F. All. M. F. All. M. F. All. £ £ £ £££ £££ Principals .. ..524 397 482 615 434 568 647 509 596 Assistants .. ..248 163 211 300 201 246 332 252 290 Whole staff .. .. 283 183 241 340 215 274 366 268 316 The value of residences, or of board and residence, where provided, is entirely excluded from these figures. The average salaries of Principals, and of male Principals especially, would be considerably higher if allowance were made for these perquisites. The average salary of assistants would also be affected, although to a less extent, if the value of board and residence were included. The) substantial increase in the average salaries for 1919 over those for 1918 is the result of the application of the Department's regulations prescribing minimum average salaries in each school of £320 and £250 for qualified men and women assistants respectively, and also prescribing fixed minimum salaries for the Principals and first assistants of schools of various grades. Since 1914 the average salary of male Principals has increased by £123, or 23-5 per cent., and the average salary of women Principals by £112, or 28-3 per cent. The average salary of male assistants has increased by £84, or 33-8 per cent., since 1914 ; of female assistants by £89, or 54-6 per cent.; and of both combined by £79, or 37-5 per cent. The regulations referred to apply only to teachers who are graduates or hold a teacher's certificate, and the average salaries of such assistants are higher than those quoted, being--male assistants, £348 ; female assistants, £256. Of 166 male assistants, the salaries of 109 are between £150 and £350, and of 183 women assistants the salaries of 110 are between £150 and £250, and of 157 between £150 and £300. It appears, especially in the case of women teachers, that junior teachers have benefited more from the new regulations than have senior teachers, the difference in salary between teacners just entering the profession and those with long service and experience not being sufficiently marked. A scheme for grading secondary-school teachers, and for providing a more definite scale of salaries, is at present under consideration. In the secondary departments of district high schools salaries are paid in accordance with a general scale. The average salaries (excluding war bonus) paid to secondary assistants in 1918 and 1919 were as follows :— 1918. 1919. Male assistants . . . . .. .. .. . . 263 298 ■ Female assistants .. .. .. .. .. .. 218 268 All secondary assistants .. .. .. .. .. 228 278 The total annual rate of salaries paid to teachers in secondary departments of district high schools, including the special payments to head teachers, was £30,980, as against £23,037 for 1918. The large increase in the total expenditure on salaries and also in the average salaries is the result of the application of the revised scale of salaries for public-school teachers that came into operation in 1919.