New Salary Scheme for Teachers

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 180, 2 August 1938, Page 8

New Salary Scheme for Teachers

APPROVAL BY MANAWATU BRANCH OP N.Z.E.I. The new salary scheme occupied the attention of the Alanawatu branch of the New Zealand Educational Institute on Friday night when the president. Mr. T. Kane, addressed the meeting on that subject. Air. Smith, Alanawatu president, presided over a representative gathering. Air. Kane said it was most gratifying to be assured that the general principles of a scheme brought down by a salaries committee, appointed by the Minister of Education, were not only acceptable to himself but also to the Government and the Education Department. The committee consisted of the director and two of his ablest officers representing the Department, three secretaries of Education Boards, and three representatives of the teachers. That, the speaker remarked, was one of the strongest committees he had known. All were fully seized of the disabilities of teachers and children and of existing anomalies. The various phases militating against progress were recounted and reforms substituted. The Alinister and the Government were to bo congratulated in accepting a policy that aimed at the reduction of the size of classes, instability of staffing and placing the teaching of children in country districts on a better footing. There could be no doubt that the continuance of % system whereby class rooms became overcrowded, was nothing short of madness. The system was most unfair to the teacher who was, in effect, nothing but a slave, and most prejudicial to the well being of the children.

School committees, parents’ associations and other social workers should take heart. The promoters of the scheme had uppermost in their minds the stability of staffing. In the past those bodies had indignantly but justifiably complained of deleterious effects constant changing of teachers had on the children. The scheme had been dovised to overcome that objection and after the adjustments had been made, there should be little cause for complaint.

The Alinister, in accepting tho new scheme, had to be assured that efficient teachers would be provided for the small and middle-size schools. There would be more inducement for capable men and women to accept head and sole-teacherships in the country. To move from the cities would add to their opportunities for their promotion. The most brilliant assistants and sole teachers would be required to do three years’ country service. Alany assistants in the two-teacher and three-teacher schools and occasionally in larger ones, would receive in addition to the basic salary, thirty pounds per annum as a special inducement. Alany of the tables relative to the details of the scheme were explained by the speaker. As was to be expected, the audience listened to the presentation with undivided attention and it was evident that almost all present approved the scheme in all its phases. A.-* the scheme offered greater opportunities for promotion, as it appeared to give the teachers sense of security and it was one teachers had striven for for a quarter of a century, it should beget that contentment which breeds efficiency.