HALF-TIME TEACHERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15664, 18 July 1914, Page 11

HALF-TIME TEACHERS.

I Sir,—l should like to call attention to a grave injustice imposed on the teachers of half-time schools. In almost every > instance a horse has to be kept, involving, 1 apart from the initial outlay of seldom 'ess 1 than £10, an annual expenditure of from j £10 to £15. The teacher of a full-time I school has no such payments to make, vet ! no discrimination is made on this account, •in the matter of salaries. Certainly the ; part-time schools are added in computing salaries, but this is no more than fair, : s I the teacher has double the number of ecords and registers to keep, double the I number of returns to prepare, and double i the responsibility, while his work must I compare favourably with that oi full-time ! teachers. If he teaches six days a week I instead of five, he receives a- grade higher salary, which means that he gives up 'Saturday recreation, and-the chance of ati tending 'classes for his betterment, and is I paid for so doing. In all of this, as you will sec, there is nothing to meet the exI pense of horse maintenance. This year we I are promised an increase in salaries, but ! it is probable that the half-timer away out in the cold and rain and the mud will bo overlooked, and will have to flounder on with his burden. To help him, or urge his claim, will not materially strengthen any particular party in Parliament, so he must strueele on, and hope and hope for some champion to riso and secure the redress of his wrongs. Half-time.