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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7336, 23 May 1885, Page 4

The annual report of the Auckland Education Board for 1884, prepared and published in : compliance with the Education Act, contains one or two points deserving of more or less special notice. One of these is the great disproportion that exists between the members of the iqple and female teachers in the Board's employ. As a matter of course the majority of the head teachers in the schools are males. Of these there are 169, while of female head teachers there are 77. Bat when we come to the assistant class of teachers the majority is on the other side, the numbers being : males, 29; females, 75. If to these are respectively added seven visiting teachers and 49 sewing teachers. we have 219 male | teachers and 201 female, which leaves a small total majority in favour of the males. But, when we come to the pupil teachers, who must necessarily to a very large extent furnish our future head and assistant / teachers, the numbers are : males 14, and females 173, making the general total utand thus : male teachers, 219 ;■ female, 374 ; and giving a majority to the females of 155. It is obviously the the disproportion of the sexes among the pupil teachers that is most suggestive of reflection. To all appearance, the time is not far off when the teaching staff in the primary schools will. almost wholly consist iof females. Judging from the fact that • only 14 ~-boys were employed as pupil teachers last year, while there were 173 girls, it is impossible to come tp any other conclusion than the one just stated. Now this shows that there is something defective in the ' system, and that there has not been sufficient attention given to those mental, social, and economic considerations, which cannot safely be lost sight of in the working of any plan of national education. We have no desire to say anything tending to depreciate the services which female teachers are performing in our schools, or to institute any invidious comparison between their mental capacity and that of teachers belonging to. the other, sex. At the same time it is _ necessary to say that, in mixed schools, • females are constitutionally fitted to discharge the duties of teaching only within certain naturally prescribed limits, and that, at a certain age, it becomes essential for boys that they should be placed under the discipline and training of a master. It must also be kept in view that females engaged in teaching are, like other members of their sex, eligible for marriage, that the number of them who would, after entering into the matrimonial . state,, be disposed or so circumstanced as to be able to continue in their scholastic positions must be very small, and that their necessitated retirement from the service entails a pecuniary loss on the public, and, , what perhaps is of more importance, a loss of experience as well. -In fact, it would for the reasons just stated be impossible, save in the most restricted sense of the word, for the State to - have an "experienced class of teachers if the profession were all but wholly composed of those belonging to the female sex. That experience mast always rank high among the qualifications of the teaching staff will not be disputed ; but the only real security for a considerable number of them being possessed of it is to be obtained by the larger proportion of .them being males. These i will as a rule continue in their profession,- if sufficient inducement for their bo doing is afforded them, and, in this way, the public possess a guarantee of being.recouped the cost of their training in, the benefits resulting from their - prolonged application and services. ■ This brings us at once to the only remedy for what must be considered a growing defect of our education system. If fewer males than females are inclined to devote themselves to the profession of teaching, the reason must be that the inducements are not sufficiently great for the former, and that the remuneration obtainable in other walks of life are more enticing. Clearly, therefore, it is necessary that greater monetary inducement be offered, if . the number of male pupilteachers, who are to be the future masters of our public schools, is to be at all in proportion to the exigencies of the system. Money it is true is scarce, and the outlay connected with the working of the Act is great; but. if that state of things which we have pointed out, and whioh we suspect nrevaila over the colony, is to be prevented from reaching the chronic stage; it is evident that some action must be taken without delay, and that this matter demands the earnest consideration, both of Education Boards, and the heads of the Educational Department.