Help for non-graduates

Press, 14 June 1978, Page 1

Help for non-graduates

The settlement provides for translation to the graduate salary scale of non-graduate teachers who were in the secondary service before the introduction of the new secondary salary scale on February 1, 1971. This will take effect from July i, this year. Mr Gandar said he had accepted the association’s point that the changed salary structure had altered conditions of service for non-graduate teachers. Other measures agreed to in the settlement include adjustments to allowance rates for all holders of positions of responsibility and for senior administrative staff in small secondary schools, from July 1. Adjustments will be made to some steps at the start of the basic scale, and improvements made to sick-leave entitlements for those who teach for more than 12J hours a week.

Mr Gandar said he was aware of difficulties in recruiting and retaining staff, particularly in some districts and for technical subjects. A special salary allowance would now be payable to basic-scale teachers in schools with proven records of serious difficulty in recruitment and retention. “A joint committee representing the Education Department, the P.P.T.A. and the Secondary School Boards’ Association, will be set up to consider applications from schools for this kind of recognition and to make recommendations,” Mr Gandar said. He also announced adjustments to the recognition of trade service for newly appointed technical teachers, to give higher starting salaries for a number of teachers joining the service after February 1, 1979. “Consequential adjustments will be made to the

salaries of technical teachers already in the service who have not benefited from the translation measures already announced.” From February 1, next year, all beginning teachers will receive up to a year’s credit for full-time study or training after the age of 20. “Some consequential adjustments will be made to the salaries of teachers already on the basic scale ‘who have not benefited from the measures approved for those with positions of responsibility or from the translations for non-graduate teachers,” Mr Gandar said. Some qualifications not previously recognised would receive recognition for salary purposes, and a number of study awards would be approved from February I, 1979, to be made available to nongraduate teachers without university qualifications to enable them to acquire or improve qualifications.