SALARIES FOR SCHOOL TEACHERS.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14349, 8 May 1912, Page 7

SALARIES FOR SCHOOL TEACHERS.

THE QUESTION OF CENTRALISA- > TION.

Mr T. S. Foster, Chief Inspector of when: asked by a representai tive of ''The Press" for his opinion on tho action of tho recent meeting of tho Teachers' Institute at Timartt in demanding a niinimiun;salary of £150-t'or/ school teachers,.-gave' some interesting facts about schools. Most Boards, ho said, were willing enough to centralise, that is .to abolish tho numbers of country schools, with an average %ttendaiiee t 'of less than 10 pupils, and substitute centralisation by a.3 system which had proved |uccess£ul in , Canada and Victoria. * -■ ' ; Centralisation by conveyance existed in the germ in New Zealand. If a certain number of parents made a proper claim, tho State provided a conveyance to carry their children to tho nearest school. School-children were also taken freo of cost on -the trains, and by a further concession those who had passed their Standard VI. examination, and .attained their certificate of proficiency wore taken freo of charge by tho train to the nearest district high school. Tho only obstacle against the further carrying out of this centralisation scheme was tho conservatism and prejudice of parents. People living in tho backblocks. preferred an inefficient school with badly-paid teachers in their immediate neighbourhood, to an efficient school at a distance. A school was a useful asset in advertising a property for sale, "School close at hand" passing as an extra advantage, with married men. '•':• In tho small back-block schools there wero few teachers with certificates. A certificated teacher could not bo expected to go and throw away his or her talents on a small school with perhaps an a vera co attendance of only seven or eight, children, and a salary correspondingly small. In tho back country north of Auckland, and in the largo tracts opened up by tho Main Trunk Railway, thero were over 200 uncertificated teachers in small schools, this making a record for any district in New Zealand, aud forty new branch schools had recently sprung into existence in the same district. Then there >were tho aided schools in. the Marl-, borough Sounds, where the teacher received a small salary from tho State, and tho parents- mado a further contri--1 bution, nnd others like tho Bealey 1 school, which were practically family schools. To demand a fixed minimum salary for teachers in this kind of school, Mr Faster contended, was absurd. A minimum salary, however, already existed for each grade, and th<s was perfectly right and proper. But ono fixed minimum salary would not be nractimblo until centralisation was. adopted. Tho present system in use in certain places of having a waggon to carry children to the nearest school, contained the germ of such a system, and if expanded would undoubtedly lead to very satisfactory results.