THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1896.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10264, 16 October 1896, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1896.

The question which is before the Board of Education at the present time touching the remuneration of teachers, brines into evidence the curious anomaly that exists in the status of teachers under our public system of education. The system is supposed to be one and uniform ; the votes of Parliament are made per capita of the pupils throughout the colony; the classification of teachers and that of the children are made oil the same principle all over the islands ; and the standard of educational results is expected to be equally attained, Yet there is the widest divergence in the amount of remuneration paid to the several classes of teachers in the different educational districts. With the same amount of professional skill and experience demanded, and no doubt obtained from the teachers, wherever situated, their salaries are fixed on widely different scales, and in the Auckland provincial district, for some unexplained reason, they are considerably lower than the lowest to be iound in any other part of New Zealand. In the proposed scheme of salaries now under consideration at the meetings of our local Board, the position of the first assistant teachers in the larger schools is being subjected to a further reduction of salaries, and as these officers are rarely required save in town schools, it is clear that we have a further raising in an insidious way of that mischievous spirit of country versus town which has done so much to bring discredit to our Board of Education, Astliesalariesuiuler the scheme are based on the number of pupils attending the school in which tlio assistant teacher is engaged, we have tile opportunity of comparing tlis Auckland salaries with those of the provincial districts further South, and we find, taking cases indiscriminately, that the first assistant teacher, who in Auckland receives £130 per annum, would in Wellington obtain £220; that the position worth in Auckland £150 a year is in Wellington valued at £230, the second assistant there being paid the salary of the first assistant under the Auckland Board. Even in the small district of Taranaki the teacher of the same rank receives a salary nearly 50 per cent, larger than that ruling in Auckland. Again, a teacher receiving £190 a year in Auckland, as first assistant would in Gisborne—which has the good fortune of having its schools administered by the Haw he's Bay Board—receive a salary of £268 8s 8d ; and a first assistant who would have £200 a year in Auckland would for the same status have £304 3s 4d in Napier. In the South Island the salaries are even larger, and one is lost in wonder to know why it is that tho teaching profession should be rated at a lower value in Auckland than in all the rest of the colony. One result of it necessarily must be that there should be a tendency on the part of talent and ability in this particular profession to drift away South, whenever they can find the opportunity, Now this position of first assistant teacher in a large school, which is the immediate object of the Board's attack, is one that requires, apart from educatioual attainments, great disciplinary power, so that at a moment's notice the teacher may be able to supervise the whole work of the school; in fact his position in a school is like that of a lieutenant in the army or on board a man-of-war. In the country, on tho other hand, the headmaster of a school of 100 children, besides being provided with a dwellingliouse, receives a salary of £200 a-year, or double that of a first assistant in a town school of 300 children. Why should the chief assistant in a large town school hold an inferior position ? Are his duties less onerous? The responsibilities are greater, the mental strain is greater, bin expenses are considerably greater, and yet the Board proposes to reduce his salary, which at the present time is far below that of teachers holding similar positions in other parts of the colony. Of course, we cannot be blind to the fact that it has the aspect of an insidious and somewhat unscrupulous attempt to force the ablest assistant teachers to take country work. Should the proposed scale of salaries be adopted the headmasters of the towu schools will have to rely upon the assistance of inexperienced teachers; the staffs will be continually changed ; the teachers best suited for town work will be forced to take charge of country schools, or to seek employment in provinces where they will receive higher remuneration for their services; and the head masters, instead of being free to supervise the whole working of the schools, will be compelled to devote most of their time to the teaching of the higher standards, and thus neglect their most important duties, the training of pupil teachers,

, ,? ut tl >* anomalous condition of thinw i« only o& of the results of the incompetence o;the Board as' at present con. stituted ktake a comprehensive view or the dufes of the position, and wo shall see ft end of these amateurish attempts u til there is a radical reform m the maW in which Boards of Education ire constituted, or until there is hWo direct and effective intervention thy the Department of Education u the practical administration of th( schools, Centralisation is of course a iiing to be avoidnd in all cases in which\ocal administration can better exercise\he functions of government. But in r system that purports to be applied uijformly over the whole colony there is need of uniformity of government to p-event such preposterous procedure as wo too frequently st;e at the hands of our local l'.oaH, or at least of the predominant party in it. It is probable that the readiest i\y to cheek most of the vagaries aitl abuses would lie tc make the inspects of schools officers of the Department, and on their observations and ad via l from time to time to insist on matters projeediug on certain lines, on piiu of the Minisu-i withholding the Parliamentary mnt or having it administered through commissioners. The virtual absent., of any inspection on the pare of the Government in regard to ii:r expenditure of this enormous amum! grant of public revenue is ih;i,|uc in the administration of public aihiirs, and absurd and mischievous as some ot the results have been, the wonder ithat the abuses have nut been far greater. With those inspectors acting as the eyes and ears, mid also as unhands of the department, the machinery of the education of the State would he worked with uniformity and harmony and much wasteful extravagance and many local jobs, and favouritism shown to persons and places could be perenip torily stopped.