TEACHERS' SALARIES.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13008, 9 January 1908, Page 4

TEACHERS' SALARIES.

.'" , '. ♦ : "■' ._. DISCUSSION BY THE EDUCATION BOtABJ).

* At yesterday's meeting of the North Canterbury Education Board, the Appointments Committee reported it had considered letters from the School Committees' Association on the question of teachers' salaries, the following resolution being passed:—"That this committee, though recognising that payment according to attendance of pupils moat always be taken into account in framing any practicable sdheme of teachers' salaries, ia of opinion that the present system of payment of teachers according to average attendance only ia inimical to the best interests of education, and recommends -the Board to request the Minister of Education to consider the advisability of modifying it so as to secure to the teachers * larger degree of fixity of salary without any sacrifice of stimulus to work."' In moving tho adoption of the report incorporating the resolution, Mr T. W. Adams said some stimulus should be given to teachers to keep their olasaea up to a proper numerical standard. Mr D. Buddo, M.P., in seconding tho welcomed the resolution as marking a, step forward towards putting teachers upon a better basis. It was a blot upon, the whole system, that school teachers, of all public servants, should be dependent upon circumstance K>r -their salaries, and that their earnings should rise and fall with the occurrence of epidemics. Their salaries depended upon 6ucb extraneous happenings, and not (as it should be) upon their own industry. He hoped to see the introduction of some more effective means for getting children to school. It was a pity that the teachers should bs penalised because children were not 6ent to school. He predicted that the time would come when teachers' salaries would not be at the mercy of ©ircumstenees over which they had no control. _ .. 3lr C. A. C. Hardy, M.P., said, bis experience was that the most auo.j cessfuf teachers were those who saw to lie attendance of the children per* aonally and worked hand-m-hand with their committees. If such a, teacher looked up defaulters, he got into touch I and sympathy with, the parents, sad made the work twice as easy. Truant i officers were meant for the towns and not for the country. In tfce country it was the. duty of the committeee to 6©o that the children attended. If they rose to a sense of their reaponaibin'tiea and brought a case or two, mnch good would be done. He hoped soma way could be devised of getting round epidemics, which were very hard on the teachers. . Mr Jamieson said the difficulty in all the larger schools arose out of epidemics. He would like to see (ftiling a doctor's certificate being aTatktbis) the committees having power to issue certificates declaring certain families to be suffering from illness. , Mr Rowe said he would like to see teachers' eaWiea independent of the attendance. It waa difficult, however, to assess what proportion of tho attendance was dus to the teachers* personality and what proportion was affected by epidemics. In many oases. differences in the attendance were due* to the personality of tho teachers. It was highly uniust that teachers* safer* ies should be dependent upon epidemics md the weather. It wss one of the greatest injustices peTfjatisisd in New Zealand. The Secretary stated that'there wars 24 cases in which staffs would be reduced unless the average attendances for last year were accepted instead of the averages for this year. The Chairman. (Mr DalsieH) said that the fault in a good many casta lay with the fact that teachers had not sufficient personality to attract ths children. ~-^-—-<-~,«- Mr Hardy combated this contention, and said the teachera had sufficient personality if they would only exercise it. ..' : .;- v> , ~ '~..:; ■,* *''\ The motion was agreed to. ".'"*'s