THE TRAGEDY OF THE TEACHERS

Evening Star, Issue 14512, 2 November 1910, Page 5

THE TRAGEDY OF THE TEACHERS

England’s social system is chiefly remarkable for its shocking want of system. The English are wont to declare that they “ muddle through ” sooner oi later, and rather pride themselves on their indifference to logic and system. But the muddling through is not only a slow and wasteful process, but a very painful one for the victims. Consider, for example, the plight of England’s unemployed school teachers, a mass meeting of whom is about to be held, in London. Many distressing stories of their struggles to get work gre being received by the recently-formed Unemployed Teachers’ Committee. It seems that seven years ago there was a dearth of teachers’. Then the London County Council attracted so many young men and women into the profession that the market was glutted. From one extreme the profession was brought to the other, with the result that now, for lack of system in regulating the supply, there are about 1,000 teachers unemployed in London, and between 4,00 C and 5,000 in the provinces. All of these have been trained at a cost to the taxpayers of £3OO each, not to speak oi the sacrifice made by the parents during their chilrden’s seven years’ studentship. Six thousand fully qualified teachers arc coming into the profession every year, for whom, according to their Committee, no work ran be found. The following cases show the straits to which certificated teachers are driven to obtain a bare living;— 1. After applying unsuccessfully 351 times for appointment as teacher, has taken a situation as governess at £2O a year. 2. Is working as printer’s reader; made 150 applications for work. 3. After 210 applications, is working as a teacher on “supply”—that is. teaches odd days at so much per day. ■l. B.Sc., had to accept an uncertificated teacher’s post at £75. 5. Clerk in a clothing factory, Da a week: hours, 8.30 a.m. to 7 p.xn. G. Addressing envelopes at 3s per thousand. 7. Clerk to a bookseller at 15s a week. 8. Two men working as farm laborers. !). Addressing circulars at 15s a week'. 10. Become clerk in the Civil Service at £55, of which 5s per week is deducted until the Government grant to the training college is repaid. , 11. In desperate straits, a girl lias engaged herself as a governess in a small private school at £ls a year and live out. 12. Two men are farm laborers. 13. A girl, whose widowed mother struggled eleven years to give her daughter a college course, is a lady clerk at 10s a week. For a teacher’s position at Willesden there were GOO applicants, and in one London division there were 200 teachers waiting for one post. In some 300 or 400 cases under the Committee’s notice the applicants could not get places because they were Nonconformists. Meanwhile there are 03,000 unqualified teachers at work in the schools, and, thousands of teachers are in charge of classes far too big for any one man or woman to deal with efficiently. The whole situation speaks eloquently of the lack of system.—London correspondent.