TEACHERS & REDUCTION

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 149, 21 December 1921, Page 8

TEACHERS & REDUCTION

TO T»I IDITOR. Sir, —Your correspondent, " Interested Onlooker," was obviously suffering from a bilious attack when he wrote the letter published in your issue this evening. A few pills in the shape of the facts of the case may help to cure him, and at the same time give some useful information to the public. First let me say, however, that the teachers have no jealousy towards, and no complaint against, the other services. The teachers base their argument on the ground of mere justice us Illustrated by the following facts:— (a) The payment young teachers receive while training is the same as young public servants receive, but was only last year raised to the same level.

(b) The steadily-rising salaries of teachers are still far below the level of other services—the older teachers remember very well the starvation wages of only a few years ago. Where would be the justice in further reducing those who have in effect never been anything else than reduced?

Ie) About three.-fifths (58 per cent., to be exact) of the teachers cannot, even though they are of high efficiency, receive under the present schedule of salaries a salary equal to that which is p. sured to every one of the cadets of the Public Service after twelve years' Bervice. Could inequality of treatment go further than that?

(d) Last year, when increases were given, the Public Service received £50 all round, besides the abolition of the barrier of the lowest grade arid its merging into the next higher; the teachers, on the other hand, received about £35, and an additional low-salary barrier was insetted in the scale.

(c) Other services, we are told, have been overstaffed and large reductions have been made. The teaching service, on the other hand, is understaffed to the extent of nearly 1500, the places being filled by uncertificated and untrained teachers. As a result many thousands of young people are not receiving the kind of education they should receive, their prospects in life are being prejudiced, and .their value to the community impaired. Can the deficiency of 1500 teachers be made up by a reduction of salaries?

(f) When public servants are promoted to another position, their expenses of removal are paid; teachers have to pay their own, at a cost, sometimes, of a year or two of the increase of salary. Where is the justice in this difference? (g) Half the teachers in Wellington— trained, certificfited, experienced teachers, many of them graduates—receive smaller pay than tram conductors. (h) Nearly every country in the world is raising teachers' salaries, not lowering them, and New Zealand's place on the international scale is a lower one than it should be.—l am, etc., H. A. PARKINSON, 1 . Secretary, N.Z.E.I. 20th December.