THE EDUCATION BOARD’S REDUCTION SCHEME.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CIII, Issue 12158, 23 March 1900, Page 3

THE EDUCATION BOARD’S REDUCTION SCHEME.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—Last October the Board appointed a special committee to revise the present scale of staff salaries, and to ascertain what reductions in other directions were practicable and! necessary. On Jan. 10 last a special meeting of the Board was held 1 for the purpose of considering the report of the Special Committee. The reductions proposed by the committee also included the office and inspectorial staff; but the • Board, at this meeting, decided, on the motion of Mr Buddo and Mr Dalziel, not to interfere with the salaries of the office staff. Why did the majority of the Board! make this distinction? They are all servants of the Board; and, in my opinion, should have been treated all alike. If shey are not civil servants, it is Sigh time they were, and that their salary should be fixed just the same as civil servants. It is within my recollection that the office staff have had an increase of salary! It is also within my recollection that the teachers have had their salaries reduced several times : before, but never reinstated! At the October meeting of the Board the chairman is reported to have said—“ . . . I There was no necessity for alarm, hut it would be necessary to carefully manage matters with respect to overstaffing, a s the present 'State of the accounts ivas due to overstaffing during the prevalence of the epidemic (measles.)” ; At the. January meeting of the Board Mr Weston pointed out that the reductions recommended might

have to be taken .off. Nice future prospect for the teachers! On Oct. 1 thy Board’s account had gone back about £1225/ owing to the low attendances, and at the end of the year would be £I6OO. Even now the attendances at the schools are ins creasing, to wit, Rangiora, Opa-wa, West Christchurch, and Richmond schools. Av your correspondent “Taiho” said in hif letter of Jan. 26: “ The question, of ate tendance Has always been a serious one ; but there is no doubt but that there would be a considerable improvement were thfc law strictly enforced.” Why does not the Board see that the law is strictly enforced! I am sorry that the. Board has found i< absolutely necessary to reduce the teachers salaries; because, I think, it depends upon them very much what the rising generation will be; therefore, to take a. life’s interest in each and all under their charge, they should be well paid. In a recent leader you stated that Mr Walker holds out nd hope of restoring the capitation grant td £4 a head. Mr Seddon at his Wools ton meeting, last November, was going to do it. It was not Parliament that reduced the capitation, grant; it was the Govern! merit of the day. The Minister of Education, at the recent meeting of the Educa-; tional Institute at Timaru (and also to a rej cent deputation at Wellington) announced his intention.,’of framing a Bill to establish a uniform, scale of salaries and of staffing’ throughout the colony. That is wanted very badly indeed. Under the Board’s reduction scheme, the children will receiva their education according to what amount ,the teachers is paid. It is a fact that oui educational system is being starved, and if parents do not take a more live interest in the question, their children’s education must’ suffer. To prove this, I would refer youi readers to the February number of the “ New Zealand Schoolmaster’s ” article on “Retrenchment and Effects,” and the report of the Victoria Royal Commission on Education. —I am, etc., D.L.