SCHOOL COMMITTEES' CONFERENCE

Evening Star, Issue 11642, 31 August 1901, Page 8

SCHOOL COMMITTEES' CONFERENCE

The. adjourned annual meeting of the School Committees' Conferenco was held at the Normal School last evening; present— Messrs M. Cohen (chairman), J. Monro, E. Voir. J. H. Ford, R. Bcntbam, A. Miller, W. Somervillc, J. Chetwin, the Rev. A. C micron, and Mr M. Freer (hon. secretary). .\]-ologies were received from Messrs G. C. 1.-.arl, T. K. Sidcy, T. A. Maitland, H. i!. .Stephens, and W. E. M'Adam. A conversational discussion ensued on tho method of conducting tho board elections, li was resolved—" That tho Executive be instructed to take action with a viow to : mire suitable candidates at next board election to have fair representation of the City and suburbs." 'the Chairman said tho question of military drill yi the primary schools was to I iave been raised that evening by Mr Sidey, but. that gentleman was called away from town on Thursday, and expressed his regret «t not being able* to redeem his promise. JI wa*,- however, desirable that tho Conference should express an opinion on the question, a* the Bill introduced by Mr Guinness was now before- Parliament, and would portly find its way on to the Statute. Hook. That Bill proposed to make physical drill compulsory on all scholars over eight years old, but power was given to the headmaster to exempt any child physically unlit. As originally drafted, the Bill contained a conscience clause, exempting from military drill any pupil whoso parents were averse to their child being so instructed; but the sense of the House was against this exemption, and it was accordingly struck out, I here was a general agreement among members in favor of teaching physical drill as a. part of the ordinary curriculum, but a minority of the House were opposed to compulsory military drill as likely to feed the spirit of militarism, which they declared to bo rampant iu the colony at present. There, could be no two opinions about the wisdom of imparting physical drill to all classes in t he public schools, and for his own part he thought that all boys would be tho better for military drill while they were passing through Standards V., VI., and VII. But if there was to bo military drill in the primary schools, the cadet, corps formed iu the schools should bo under the jurisdiction of tho Education Department If, on the other kind, the Defence Department claimed control, there would be obvious disadvantages, leading, possibly, to disorganisation of the schol work. The Defence Department should provide instructors wherever practicable; for tho rest, the school cadets should be controlled by the educational authorities of tho district. There ought to bo a second line of cadets, composed of boys who had either just left school or who were continuing their studies in the ■ secondary schools. This second line should be entirely controlled by the Defence Department, and would servo as feeders to the adult corps already in existence. Ho understood that the Defence Department had alrea-dy this second branch of cadets in contemplation, and that regulations were about to be promulgated under which several volunteer companies in Dunedin would have cadet corps, attached to them. He quoted with approval the cadet system in connection with the State schools in Victoria, organised by Major Eddy, an account of which appeared in these columns in June last. He would like to see the establishment of school cadet corps in this colony proceed on similar lines. —ln the cours-i of the discussion that followed, the opinion was generally expressed that primary school cadets should be controlled by tho Education Department, but that the Defence Department should give tho boys the necessary instruction. A resolution to that effect, moved by Mr Fraer. was carried unanimously, and, a copy ordered to be forwarded to the Minister of Defence. The Chairman stated that it had been intended to bring up the question of a colonial scale of salaries, but as the question was a big one and the meeting rather thinly attended it would be nnwise to discuss it that evening. In several respects the Commission had done exceedingly good ■work, which he hoped would bear fruit. First of all, they had taken a step which be had always advocated, and that was to rnako adeqmte provision for the men and women w r ho were sent out to teach in the back blocks. It was a positive scandal that thjse who went to thoso outlying districts and deprived themselves of the advantages of civilisation should in the past have been paid salaries ranging from £6O to £Bo—barely enough to keep body and soul together. If ho could have bis way he would not give any teachers in such positions less than £9O. The Rev. Mr Cameron said in the schools under twenty it was proposed to penalise the teachers £5 per head for overy child absent from school. This was monstrous, seeing that the teacher was there prepared lo teach all who could attend, and that the absentees were always beyond the teacher's control. He failed to see why the principle of fixed salary should not obtain in every grade. The Chairman agreed with Mr Cameron's view. He had always striven to bring about the adoption of that principle to even- grade of the service, and objected to penalising a teacher, who ought not to be expected to act as a truancy officer. But so long as the Legislature authorised the payment of a capitation grant to boards based on average attendance, it did not appear to be possible to wholly cure that defect. Mr Fraor pointed out that Mr Cameron was not correct in his assumption that the capitation of £5 meant the actual salary to be paid to teachers of schools under twenty, and that tho average salary to these women would bo under £65. " The Boards would get that capitation, but would pay the teacher the minimum salary of their own seals That plan had been followed in the past. The Chairman endorsed Mr Fraer's view. The grant would be paid over to the boards, who would thus be able to give the teachers of these schools what the report called an "adequate salary" in future. There was a consensus of opinion among tho experts examined by the Commission that this £5 would be ample for tho purpose. As Mr Fraer had stated, the Otago Board had always made Tip to the teacher of the small school a talary equal to the miuimum paid in tho lowest classified school, and the profit earned by the largest schools enabled the Board to do that. He had been told that the minimum of this class under tho proposed colonial scale was fixed at £BS. The Bev. Mr Cameron said what was really proposed was to make the settlers iu the back blocks pay tho difference between the capitation and the salary paid to tho teacher of an under twenty school district. He considered that a shamo in a land which professed to have free education. It waa taxing the people who went out in the back country, and adding to their burdens. The Commission went so far in the direction of fixed salaries that they ought to have gone one step further. Had they done so they would have given an increased value to their report. Another feature of the report which he considered a serious defect in it was the part relating to the wages of the female teachers. He did not believe hi equal pay for men and women, which was going to ruin the whole system. The reason why they could not give the teacher in the small school a fixed salary was because of the extent to which tho female salary was increased. They had been cutting "their iiwn throats by keeping down the smaller assistants. The proposed salaries for female teachers were calculated to destroy the system of education simply because it was going to throw the whole thing into the hands-of the females. Of course, he did not say anything against female teachers; but the tendency of the report was to throw the whole thing into their hands. In fact, the whole of the schools might he entirely staffed by females. The head-master in the Normal School might be a female. In the Kaikorai School the head-master might be *, female. The Chairman said that they must nob assume that the Education Boards were go ing to turn the scale upside down, and throw the present staffing to the winxla. In. the discretion of the Boards the apjawfitts within defined limits might be males or females, but the latter must be women in

stated proportions. It was an extreme ewe to say that all the positions in a school like Kaikorai, for example, would be filled by women. What would happen if the'colonial scale went into opeeation was this: the head-master must bo a male : then came the mistress, after her two assistant males, but three of the remaining four positions must be filled by women. None could accuse him of being indifferent to the claims'of women teachers, but. he felt that the agitation commenced in another part of the colony to defeat the work of the Commission because all women teachers were not paid the same salaries as the men was fraught with farreaching mischief. He -"had' always contended that wherever'a woman discharged the duties of a particular position she should receive the salary allotted lo that position, and should not be penalised because of her sex. The test of payment should be efficiency of labor, whether the occupant of the position were man or woman. There were many snch anomalies in the service at present, and these cases would require to be specially dealt, with. He was sorry that, when the Commission reported on several matters outside their order of reference they had not made a recommendation in favor of transference from position to position. There were men and women in the service who had almost given up hope of the reward of meritorious sen-ice which should be theirs. They appeared lo be fixtures in their present positions until either they qualified for the old age pension or death claimed them. Either the Boards or the Minister should have the power, on the advice of the inspectors, to effect transfers and to make removals wherever the exigencies of the service demanded. That was"the rule in other branches of the public'service, and he could never understand whv the teaching profession had been reserved for exceptional treatment in this respect. A conversational discussion on several cf Ihe points raised in the Commission's report was ended by I lie Conference adjourning, as members had to reach their homes.