Education Economies

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 155, 28 March 1932, Page 11

Education Economies

Sir, —When the Economy Commission recommended the drastic cuts in educartion expenditure, instead of proposing such a retrograde step as’ raising the school age to six, which will have the effect of throwing so many more teachers on the unemployed list, why did it not look into the enormous disparity between the salaries of primary and secondary teachers? For instance, I eould mention two schools in one town, one a primary school of over 400 pupils, the other a secondary school of a little over 200. The headmasters of both schools are university graduates, but the former receives about £4BO, while the latter receives well over £7OO. _ Why there is such a great difference is hard to explain. Nobody can claim that it is more difficult to teach post-primary than primary pupils, whose minds are less mature and whose classes are generally twice as large as those in secondary schools and demand a greater nervous strain. Recently a new secondary school was opened. When the pupils of this school, about 80 in number, were part of a district high school their headmaster received £6O for looking after them, in addition to his primary school salary. Now the same pupils are in a secondary school their headmaster receives more than the highest-paid primary teacher in the Dominion. The same inequality is seen in the assistants’ salaries. In fact, in a high school of over 300 pupils, two of the assistants receive more than the headmasters of our largest primary schools. To me this seems grossly unfair and demands reform.—l am, etc., JUSTICE. March 23.