AT THE WRONG END.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 18, 22 January 1931, Page 6

AT THE WRONG END.

The Education Department is, of" course, quite justified in urging the Education Boards to be careful about the details of administrative expenditure and to economise rigidly in all possible directions. But the £5 reduction of the allowance, now paid to probationers, training college students and student teachers in technical schools, seems to us both ungenerous and unjust. The male training college students get only £115 a year, and the girls £110, and they must have a hard struggle in paying their board and meeting daily expenses. As a matter of fact, it. is notorious that these young people often find great difficulty in making both ends meet. It is obvious that the loss of £5 per annum from an income of a little over £2 a week will be a more serious matter than a larger deduction from a much higher salary would seem to men and women in better positions. It is quite probable that all teachers' salaries may be reduced within a short time, but why should the Department make- a beginning with its poorest and worst paid employees ? The Minister of Education may< well be asked to •