THE EMPLOYMENT OF PUPIL TEACHERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9094, 30 June 1888, Page 6

THE EMPLOYMENT OF PUPIL TEACHERS.

REVISED REGULATIONS.

A CHAMPION OF WOMEN'S RIGHTS. The revised regulations as to the employment, education, and examination of pupil teachers in the Auckland district, were submitted to the Board of Education yesterday by the Training College Visiting Committee. Alterations and amendments occur in classes 2, 5, 7, and 9, which now read as follows :—

2. The full term of service for a pupil teacher shall be three years, to be secured by agreement with the Board, but to be terminable at any time by three months' notice on either side, or by a full appointment to a position higher than that of pupil teacher : provided that the Board may summarily dismiss a pupil teacher for insubordination or other gross misconduct, and that failure to pass the examination in two successive years shall i/mo facto cancel a pupil teacher's ergageinent. 5. Pupil t ?aehers shall be paid according to the following scale First year pupil teachers : .Male, £30 a year; female. ±'20 a year. Second year pupil teachers : Male, £-10 a year; female, £30 a year. Third year pupil teachers: Male, £o0 a year; female, £40 a year. Provided that, in the first year of their service, pupil teachers who rank as of the second year snail be paid as first vear pupil teachers ; and a similar rule shall be applied to pupil teachers in the second year of their service who rank as of the third year. 7. Head teachers are required to devote one hour each school day to the instruction of the pupil teachers in the schools under their charge. 0. With the sanction of the Board previously obtained, the instruction of pupil teachers may be delegated by the head teacher to one or more of the assistants employed in the school; but the head teacher will be held responsible for the instruction. The following clause was added to the programme of examinations Pupil teachers are expected to present themselves for examination in Class E, or in some higher Class, within eighteen months from the time of passing the examination prescribed for the end of the second year ; but the Board does not undertake to continue the employment of any pupil teacher beyond the term of service prescribed by these regulations.

Mr. Luke protested against clause 5 being carried as it stood, as, in his opinion, it was most unfair. A difference should not be made in the salaries paid to male as compared with those paid to female pupil teachers, since the work was as laborious in one case as in the other. The lady pupil teachers employed by the Board were most conscientious and did their work well, and it was therefore a gross injustice that a distinction of this kind should be made. Were the clause passed in its present form he would say that all the chivalry of the Board had gone. He moved an amendment, "That tho salaries of the male and female pupil teachers be the same, the scale to be that now fixed for the male teachers."

Mr. Lknnox pointed out that the Board employed a very large number of female teachers, whilst male teachers were very difficult to find. Gentlemen who entered the service of the Board as teachers made a life work of the profession, whilst ladies as a rule only remained in the Board until they were married, or could make some other provision for their future. Ho had as high an opinion of ladies as that held by his friend, Mr. Luke, but he thought some inducement should be offered to gentlemen teachers to remain in the Board's employ.

Mr. Upton thought that the point which Mr. Lennox had mentioned governed the question. Mr. Udy would support the recommendation of the committee, because this was tho starting-point of the Board's retrenchment policy. Mr. Luke replied that even if tho lady teachers get married, they became educated wives and educated mothers, and the Board should recollect that " the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world." It was not the duty of the Board to assist the Government to retrench ; it was their duty to see that the iichooio were efficiently concreted.

The amendment of Mr. Luke was put and lost, only Mr. Luke himself voting for it. The regulations wet 9 then adopted as submitted by the committee. It was also resolved, at the suggestion of the secretary, Mr. Rice, " That the regulations as regards salary, shall not apply to pupil teachers already indentured to the Board, but that in other respects the regulations shall come into force immediately on their approval by the Minister of Education."