EDUCATION BOARD

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1510, 7 February 1901, Page 15

EDUCATION BOARD

The Board met on the 30th. Present— Messrs J. R. Blair (chairman), W. C. Buchanan, J. Kebbell, John Young, F. Bradey, E Feist, A. W. Hogg. FINANCE. The following financial position was disclosed : —Maintenance, debtor, £3186 11s sd; debtor, £3537 14s 6d; contract liabilities, £733. The following payments were authorised : —'Maintenance, £4140 9s; buildings, £157 14s. A MARK OF RESPECT. The Board' adjourned for half an hour out of respect to the memory of Queen Victoria, and instructed its secretary to write to his Excellency the Governor conveying a message of condolence. Mr Blair explained that as several appointments to schools had to. be made thatday and a number of deputations had' announced their intention of coming to interview the Board, a longer adjournment could not be conveniently made. PUPIL TEACHERS’ REGULATIONS. The Chairman moved' in accordance with notice, 'That the regulations for the employment, education and examination of pupil teachers be amended by the addition of the words: ‘ln every case the engagement of pupil teachers 1 shall terminate "when they have completed! a full year in. the status of fifthyear pupil teachers, the effect of the alteration not to be retrospective.”’ Speaking to the motion, Mr Blair said the Board had at present sixty-five pupil teachers in its employment, entailing an expenditure of £ISOO in excess of the amount entailed’ upon other boards under this heading. The assistance recently given by the Government to teachers in no way improved the finance of the Board. He (the speaker) was sorry that the present system would have to be abandoned, because he himself had introduced] it, and it had, on the whole, operated in the best interests of education. The present system was that apprentices continued on in the Board’s service at increased' salaries, and; were practically educated from stage to stag;© in the Board’s service. In other districts the teachers had to educate themselves as teachers at their own expense. The time had come, however, when the Board could not afford the additional salaries paid to ex-pupil teachers, and that was the basis for his resolution.

'Mr Robertson supported the resolution on financial grounds, but thought it would have been better to have done as he suggested some time back, viz., reduce the salaries of the teachers getting over £2OO, instead of adjusting the finances at the expense of the weakest of the Board’s servants; Mr Young said the present system was an excellent one, but, unfortunately, their funds would not support it. If the Government had! come to the aidi of the Board, as members had been led to suppose it would do, the Board would have been able to carry on, but, as matters stood, the Board had no alternative but to cariy the chairman’s resolution iri self-defence.

The Chairman, replying, said the abolition of the present system would have one good result. Its weakness was

that sometimes teachers passed! from grade to grade who were not really suitable. In Otago, where the teachers had to educate themselves, none but the most qualified teachers were ultimately selected, and it was for this reason, no doubt, that the Otago teachers had a higher reputation than those in other parts of the colony. After further discussion, the motion was carried unanimously. LEAVE OF ABSENCE AND RESIGNATIONS. '• .•> Miss Riddick, Thomdon School, was granted leave of absence for one month. Miss Phoebe Watson, assistant Mount; Cook, was granted a month’s leave of absence. The following resignations were accepted I : —William F. Ford, head teacher Wadestown (eighty years of age, with twenty years of service), with six months? leave of absence on full pay'; Margaret Dunlop, Levin School; Janlesina Gray, sole teacher, Waingawa; Mabel Reid, T© Aro Infants’ School; F. W. Gregory, Tokomaru. MISCELLANEOUS. Maud Waterson was appointed sowing teacher at the Hukanui School. Remuneration was refused to Yeats for relieving at the Otaki School. It was decided to appoint an arbitrator to deal with the valuation of land in Sydney street and Frasex-’s lane, which the City Council wishes to : quireThe Waikanae Committee’s application that the school should be painted was refused. ' A petition for a teacher at Kaitoke was rejected.