EDUCATION ECONOMY

Evening Star, Issue 21011, 27 January 1932, Page 10

EDUCATION ECONOMY

SAVING IN SALARIES RETIRING HEAD MASTERS SCHEME FOR REPLACEMENT A proposal under which the Educatiqn Department could save possibly £50,000 a year by retiring head masters of higher grade schools who have completed forty years’ service was put forward by a retired teacher who has had charge of several of these schools (says the Auckland ‘Herald’). There nave been many suggestions that the Government should reduce the expenditure on education, but there have been few proposals that would make possible any considerable saying without impairing the efficiency of the educational system. It was suggested by the teacher that about £IO,OOO a year could be saved in the Auckland urban area alone, and that a proportionate saving in the other education districts of the dominion would bring the total to something like £50,000. “ There are in the big city and suburban schools alone about twenty head masters with forty_ years’ service or more drawing salaries averaging probably £SOO a year after the deduction of the 10 per cent, cut,” said the teacher. “These men if they wished could retire with superannuation of over £3OO. This year two or three of them intend so doing, but as retirement after forty years’ service is not compulsory many others will naturally carry on until they reach the ago limit of sixty-five years, when they must leave the service Under the present system, if these men were retired compulsorily, a chain of promotions, with consequent increases of salary, would follow right down the service. WORK FOR JUNIORS.

“ If, on the other hand, these head master positions were not filled this promotion chain would be arrested, creating dissatisfaction among the hundreds who are waiting to fill the shoes of those higher up. These difficulties could be overcome by the scheme which I am putting forward, and there would he scope *oi the saving of nearly £IO,OOO a year in the Auckland urban area. At the same time there would be definite employment for a number of junior teachers equal to tho total number retired.?’ It was explained that under the scheme all head masters of largo schools who had completed forty years’ Service would bo retired on superannuation and until conditions improved their positions would not be filled. The first assistant of each school would bo required to act as head master without any salary increment. He would still be required to teach and to carry out the organising of the standard classes, and would be given a probationary assistant at £IOO a year to help him with his work. It was felt that the infant classes could safely be left for organisation and promotion purposes to the control of the many capable mistresses now in charge of them. YEAR’S TRIAL URGED. It was argued that a year’s trial of the scheme would soon show whether there was any deterioration in teaching power. This, however, was not likely, since the assistants who were given this opportunity of making good would certainly face their new duties wholeheartedly, although the extra remuneration which they might regard as their right would bo denied them. In schools of grade 5, it was pointed out, the head master does the organisation and teaches a class, commonly using a probationer in training to assist him where ho is allowed one, and there seemed no reason why this system should not be applied to schools of grades 6 and 7, except that it would