The Dominion TUESDAY, JULY 21, 1908. THE WRONGS OF THE TEACHERS

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 255, 21 July 1908, Page 6

The Dominion TUESDAY, JULY 21, 1908. THE WRONGS OF THE TEACHERS

The long-standing grievances of our under-paid State teachers have again been prominently before the public. It has given us much satisfaction to discover that the various Educational Institutes show no slackening of their energy in fighting tho battle of tho teachers against Departmental apathy and neglect. At Dunedin on Thursday last, and at Christchurch on Saturday, the Presidents of the • respective Institutes, dealt with the inadequacy of teachcrs' salaries in a way that must have carricd conviction to ' everyone who read the summaries of the addresses which we printed. As tho Minr ister for Education, replying to a deputation on Saturday, gave no details of the measures of relief .'promised in the Governor's, Speech, nor any satisfactory assurance 'that he really has at heart the- cause of the teachers, it is necessary to repeat some of the .facts of the ease. The " removable ills " that afflict teachers were summarised by Mr. -A. W. Iyndall. tho President of the Otago Institute, as " loss of wages and lack of promotion." In his very -outspoken speech—these' Institutes have thoroughly learned how to put their case—Mr. TiniiAll showed that tho average attendance of pupils at Otago schools has steadily decreased from 19,607 in 1895 to 17,152 in 1907, a loss of 12-J; per cent, in 12 years. In the Dunedin schools the decrease was 30 per cent, between 1887 and 1907. Yet during " this child famine period Mr. Ti'NDALt, calls' it ." child famine," because " race suicide means gradual starvation for the teacher "—the authorities built three handsome new schools for tho accommodation of tho disappearing pupils. Moreover, although the attendance in Otago has so seriously fallen off, the expenditure there has increased In £20,000. Tho teachers did not benefit from that increased expenditure, for it is. the peculiar injustice of the position that the Act which grades salaries in accordance with average'attendance omits 'to prescribe any similar graduated scale of " payment according to : attendance " for other employees of boards outside teachers: While teachers' salaries havo dropped in Otago, tuc expenditure has gone lip, and, as Mr. Tyndall says, "if we take expenditure as the measure,' we primary teachcrs are 'forced to tho con-' elusion that the State considers us a dc,'ereasingly important part of tho ideal educational schemo of things." Is .it any wonder that the Otago teachers, whoso salaries, on the average, have decreased in spite of tho prosperity of the country and tho immense increase of the Education vote, are bitter with a sense of, unjust treatment?. ' . Teachers may build some slight hope ,for reform upon one statement of the Minister's to Saturday's deputation. "1 an not contending," lie said, " that the tcacheft are paid as well as they should be, but tho desired end should bo attained by increasing the salaries, not by changing the method of ~ grading tho schools." It is true that' Mr. Fowlds made out a very strong case for tho grading of schools according to average attendance—ho evidently holds stronger views on this point than on tho grievances of teachers and the necessity for relief —but. the. Presidential address of Mr. S. C. Owen to the" North Canterbury Educational- Institute xon Saturdayshowed that ii " average attendance " is to- bo the sole basis of grading, injustices will continue. Thcro would bo no guar-, antcej however the scale of salaries might •bs 'raised, that a teacher, obtaining a position on offer would receive the advertised salary. Mr. Owen'quoted cases tc-show that between the advertisement o: a vacant position and the installation of tho successful applicant the school invdved might be de-graded. When tho ■Government's Bill comes before- the House, the essential fact to be remembered is that .tho teachers arc underpaid, and have no security in their salaries. On May 14 wc ( showed how little the teachers have benefited frpm tho onormou's increase of the Education vote, and how misleading . was 'the Minister's siatcmont, in reply to tho charge that the Department was keeping salaries down, that "tho vote for education is going up by leaps and bounds." Between 1894 and 1906 the total expenditure increased from half a million a year to a million a year. Yet the number of teachers had only increased by 20 per cent., and the increase in salaries of teachers in tho first :grado was only 15 per cent. What, then, accounts for the great total incrcaso 1 An increase of 230 pel' cent, on tho head office, of 50 per cent, in " education board management," Ol 600 per cent, on secondary and university education, of 500 per cent, on technical schools, of 250 per cent, on industrial schools—of 1 vast percentages, in short, on what wo then called, and still call, " extravagant administration, and innovations which .in most cases should rot havo been given p'rcferonce over tho needs of the teachers." ' much longer will this ill-used body of public servants have to suffer postponement of the relief due to them? . ■