TEACHERS' GRUMBLES

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 7, 8 July 1922, Page 4

TEACHERS' GRUMBLES

MORE CONCERNED. WITH PAY THAN ABOUT EDUCATION 'A STRONG INDICTMENT. '■ In view of the controversy that has raged around the subject of teachere' salaries in Now Zealand, especially in connection with the second salary cut, an article by Mr. Lovat Eraser, which, appeared hi the Sunday . Pictorial recently, will be read with interest. Mr. Prase- . points oilt that in' England teachers are more anxious about big pay than education. "Our education system _ias proved a costly failure, yet teachers are.,,highly paid and highly pensioned _ or." relatively easy work." In the course of his article, Mr. Eraser tays :— ''■".,', , Most people who have to pay taxes are ■peculating''1 about to-morrow's Budget, and' telling Sir Robert. Home, tile Chancellor of the Exchequer, precisely, what Sic ought to do. I shall not contribute to this flood of good advice. I prefer to hear what the Chancellor has'to say, and to make my comments afterwards. General criticism of Government ex-, penditure has ceased to be of much value. What we'poor taxpayers have to do its to "concentrate upon particular Do,partmem_.;,which have' enlarged their out-* lay beyond; all. reason; and we must cull ■. upon these Departments to reduce their ; exp'fiuditure,:. within , the limits 'of our pockets. ■"•'■';"' ' <: " . i When;:-P say 'taxpayers, I do' npt necessarily mean those who pay income tax..,.,.1. .observe that a movement is on" foot to press for a reduction of the income tax. There are, I believe, about 2,400,000 payfers of income tax in this coEnitry, and 'they are bearing .a .very disproportionate share of . the national burdens. But'many millions .more': are. paying on tea, on beer, on,sugar, and, an..other commodities .'wliich are. daily :oflsumed; and, therefore,' I think that the people who are petitioning for V reduction of the income tax alone lia-ve a! very imperfect conception of the burdens »vhich tha nation is carrying. '. , ' , ¥ am surprised that, while, so >much miS been published, dining the past week ■ Mi.'tlie question of economy, so little has been written on the subject of the cost". :>f'education. No branch of our national expenditure lias "risen with such twiftness.as our education estimates. An deft prevails—and at one time I shared) i-vMrhat the Education Act of 1918 has begn, to a great extent, in suspense. : The other day Mr. Fisher, the Minister ofiEdaicatioDj boasted in the House of Commons that, out, of fifty-four sections which comprise his precious Act, only ilixee have not been put into execution. (Ve\ are paying for F'isherism, not only i. ai "our income tax, but in our tea, our sugar, our beer, and in most .of the commodities consumed in ■ everyday life. Every housewife is paying heavily for a rery dubious system of education vvheniveT she buys a pound of tea. . Do not think that tho payers, of income tax fiudi ill '■the money.

I havo been reading with very doeP interest the presidential address of Mr. Cove, a gentleman. from the BhoncLdtt Valley, who was at the head of tho National Union of Tea chew at their recent gathering in Torquay. Possibly I have a .'longer acquaintance with his union, than Mr.: Cove ,'himself. I recall it,, gathering of the union.more than thirty years ago, . when Dr. Maenama.ra, now our labour Minister, was teaching— and teaching admirably—at an obscure school in the recesses of Bristol, and was climbing up the ladder which was one day to lend him to the editorship of tho Schoolmaster. The thing I remember most about that very distant conference was that the teachers talked very little ibout education, and a great deal about .their pay. In thirty years these good school-piasta-s have not changed. They render a certain amount of lip-service to what they are pleased to call "education," but iJmost the whole of their speeches are 'aeyoted tp the subject of, their salaries, as,*they were thirty years ago,, Mr. Cove at Torquay professed that ..he was not? alluding to the. question of teachers' pay until the very end of his discourse. As1., a ihatter of fact, he never spoke of my other matter. When, he abused, in i most unseemly manner, the members of the Gedcles Committee, he was clam-' During for :more pay, and for nothing else. I have never heart! from any mem- : her of the Teachers' Union arty reference to an educational subject which has not contained screams for more'pay.' And what does this denunciation of 'Mr; Cove and.his comrades amount to? To he.iv .them, talk, one would think that the ■whole educational system of Great Britain ' has been hamstrung. I take the journal, which, lias been more responsible than any. other publication for the costly anaticism of our present.educational policy, and I read this statement : "The total reduction of expenditure, after all the talk, is in the coming year only to amount to less than one million ..pounds sterling, or one eeventy-fifth of the total expenditure." Then, what are the teachers complaining about? .»

Let me'state a few more points about tho position of these grumbling pedagogues. Tho salaries of elementary school teachers have .risen from £16,----416,000 in'l9l3-14 to £43,800,000 in tho .present financial year. This sum'does not take into account the enormous

amonrib which will eventually be required for teachers' iienaions. No other class of men anti women in the country has received such benefits sinco tho war, afc.il. time ivhcu wo are left far poorer ithain w had ever thought possible. All other classes have suffered heavy losses in one way or another. Those teachers ■who did least to help us through the war crisis have prospered most at the .public. expense'; yot thoy grumble and: squeal because they are asked to make a small annual contribution to the cost of their pensions. You might think that the wicked G-ddos „Oommittea had done something to reduce their pay, but what are the real facts ? Another million and a-quarter pounds; is being added to teachers' salaries during the current year, while Mr. Fisher and his associates are taking three-quarters of a million, pounds off the sum provided for meals to school children. If any expenditure is to be cut, the teachers mean to see that the.children's food shall suffer before their, own saliures.-aro curtailed.

After their defiant and aggressive claims at Torquay, the teachers must not complain if the public in their turn, submit the demands thrust upon them -• to very rigid' scrutiny. No class of people in the country have ,an easier lime-, ..thitn, tho ■elementary, teachers. They are now trained by the State, and erast their parents little or nothing, whereas children can only be placed in \ most other professions at very heavy expanse. "When they become. State functionaries, the teachers' put in on an aveyage a, five-hour day in a, five-day week. They only "work" for nine months of the year. They are paid for ili-_.tr liolid-ays, ami they are ■ pensioned .-i ovtravajra.il. ra-tea. They have no fear

of unemployment, and they work less and play more than anybody else in the whole kingdom. i What is the character of the ''work" of these elementary school teaobersl, about which they squall so lustily? On their own showing, the elementary school system is a gross) failure. The "experts" of the Board of Education declare that children learn nothing during, the last three years of the elementary course. That is why they waut to create an immense and expensive notwork of secondary and continuation schools to make good the shortcomings of the elementary schools. But why not begin by improving our elementary system, and making it efficient? The elementary teachers heartily acquiesce, but what they say is in effect : "Pile up'our' pay, and give us pensions far nothing. That's the only way to improve British education." Tho real truth is that we have no satisfactory system of elementary education at all. What we have ] is a gigantic system of paying salaries for inefficiently-performed duties. If you do not believe me, I recommend) you to study the reports of any meeting of elementary teachers. They never talk about education at all. Their one theme is "pay, pay, pay." It does not seem to me that the average school teacher makes any attempt at increasing his or her.store of knowledge after, once obtaining an\ appointment. They dole out like gramophones the information which was crammed into them while they were in their 'teens." Many of them know nothing more, and do not want to know anything more. Their only interests appear to be their union, their pay, their pensions, and their unending holidays. If I do them ah injustice, they must 'blame the speeches of their leaders. A very eminent authority on our educational system said to me the other day; that it really broke down because it was too extensively staffed by women. He alleged that a large proportion' of the women who became school teachers. ha_ very little interest in their profession.. Their life's interest was wifehood,: and not school teaching, and the consequence was that we paid heavily for a training which they soon flung away. He complained that neither Mr. Fisher nor anybody else, diaxe^ tell the truth'about the unfortunate effect' of women's share in educational work..' Though I note these statements, I do not .necessarily support > them.' I iwant facts.and figures, especially such . figures as. will show what proportion; .0f.;,-women .teachers promptly marry after-having received an expensive training. My own view is that women are often better and more successful school teachers than .men, an_ I notice that at,' Torquay, while all the men sat silent, vit was a very able woman teacher who rebutted Mr. Cove's unwise attack on the business men and the'taxpayers. We shall not overcome our educational difficulties by attacking the women teachers.