SCHOOL TEACHERS’ SALARIES

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1511, 14 February 1901, Page 58

SCHOOL TEACHERS’ SALARIES

DEPUTATION FROM THE EDU-

CATION BOARD.

A deputation from the Education Board, consisting of Messrs J. R. Blair (chairman), A. W. Hogg, John Young, W. C. Buchanan and A.. Dorset (secretary) waited on the, 6th ihstaut;_ upoi l the Minister of Education. .(Hon, W . C. Walker) to confer with regard to the proposed increases of salaries to the Board’s teachers. , Mr Blair said,-the .Board had . found so many anomalies-. iii' . scale of salaries ...and. these. were_ causing such a large amount of dissatisfaction that they had felt compelled to approach the Minister, op. the subject.. _ The. Minister: asked.if. the. deputation was to be considered a consultation in terms of the Aot, because if so it would make a good deal of difference, and he was net sure that in that event the presence of the. press would be at all conducive to satisfaction. / . Some discussion took place as to whether the conference should be termed, a deputation or a consultation, and ultimately .... ■ . The Minister said, *' Well, if it is not a consultation I am quite prepared to listen to anything you have to say.” Mr Blair said the first thing that struck the Board was the inequalities that existed in. the allocation of the monqy and the anomalies „UiL. were produced . thereby. e Hutt, for instance, - they, had a teacher who had been. at the school for two years, and was getting a salary of £BO a year. Another teacher .>vho was getting the same salary had left six months ago. Another: was appointed about three months ago, and she was promoted without any reason, and got an increase of £2O a year, while the former was passed over. Moreover, the latter held only an E certificate, while the former held a D. Mr Hogben (Inspector-General) explained that the lady who got > cne increase required an E certificate for her position in. the school, and as she possessed it she received the increase. Mr Blair : And the other, who has been in the school for three j'ears, is overlooked. This list arbitrarily meets positions which do not exist. We have no such things as heads of the girls’ or the boys’ departments. All the teachers are doing exactly the same class of work. Very often a teacher getting only £BO has a more onerous and laborious class of work than one getting £9O. Mr Hogben : The only way to get a uniform scale is to pay according to the position of the teacher and tk e re ~ sponsibility of the work. ... Mr Blair:- Where is the justification for, .saying that a teacher is the head of a girls’ department when that teacher is only doing her daily class-work P Mr Hogben : You must have a teacher responsible for the infants. In Otago, Canterbury, Auckland and elsewhere they all had an infant mistress. Mr Blair pointed out that in the other provinces they had a different organisation from that in Wellington. It would be unfair to give a teacher where there are infants a higher salary than the teachers doing standard work. In Masterton, for instance, they had provided for an infant teacher where they had a separate infant school. Mr Hogben: We have assumed that the order in which you put the t eac hers is the order in which they stand and their rank in the schhol.

Mr Blair recognised the difficulty of adjusting the salaries. The Board was depending upon a promise that it would receive some details to go unon before increases were allocated. Returning to the increases themselves, the teacher at Mangamaire, wher e the attendance was sixteen, and increasing, was receiving £7O, and he was to get an increase of £ls, while the teacher at Alfredtom where the attendance had - fallen off j was receiving £BO, and was to get an increase of £2O. Mr Hogben stated that the certificate of the Mangamaire teacher was E4,while that of the teacher at Alfredton was El. They had maue a deduction of 1 per cent, for each letter and of 4 per cent, for each figure, so that there should have been a difference of 12 per cent, between the salaries if the schools were the same size. The Alfredton School, however, had tnree more pupils. Mr Blair said that at the Masterton school Miss Munro was getting an advance of £70,. and was called head misti ess. The Board could not recognise that at all, as she was simply doing class m ork. Mr Hogben presumed there were cases in which a teacher would have to exert her influence and look after the morals of the girls. Mr Blair said that if a teacher was content to go on at £9O and was to receive an advance- of. £7O, it was plainly a case where they should declare the situation vacant and call for applications. Where each teacher was doing the same class of work, the only exception that he thought should be made was in the case of a teacher taking the drill at the school.

In * reply to further objections, Mr Hogben said that in the case of the Mount Cook School, where the- salary of the second assistant would, under the new schedule, be only £lO less than that of the first, and £SO more than that of the next below, while all were doing the same work, it was open to the Board to propose that a portion of the increases

granted to the school should go to the head mistress. That w*a§- the sort of suggestion he had expected the Minister would receive. Everywhere else but in Wellington it was considered that a staff of three strong teachers Avas sufficient for any girls’ school of six standards. They had deducted from the increase in cases where the certificate was below che minimum certificate required for the position, and had not given bonuses for any higher certificate than was requ;red.

Mr Young said the Department launched out without giving the Board any indication of what was going to be done. It would have been at least a matter of courtesy on the part of ihe central department to have taken 'he Boards of Education into its confidence, and have given some indication beforehand of what the changes would be. They had come like a thunderclap on the Beard, who could form no idea of what principle underlay the thing. The principle indicated seemed to mm a very vague one, and did not appear to apply in all cases. The Minister said the position was hardly as Mr Young had put it. The Boards had been asked to say whether they agreed with the proposals of the Department, and if not, what modifications they would suggest. Replying to further questions, _Mr Hogben said the fact that the Wellington Education Board did not keep to its own list of salaries made the Department’s task much harder.

Mr Blair said the Board was willing to help the Department, and would do so to its very best ability. He wished to remove from the Board the responsibility of not having made the suggestions.

Mr Hogg said they were under the impression it was the intention of Parliament to assist the teachers throughout the colony who were inadequately paid. The circumstances were exceedingly difficult. There were a great number of schools in bush districts where there were no residents, and teachers were accordingly at a great disadvantage. He considered the well-paid teachers were getting all the increases, while the poorly paid ones had been entirely neglected. Of 420 teachers under the Board, 189 had received increases and the majority (230) were disappointed. He thought the money might have been disbursed in a way that would have been more advantageous to the poorer teachers. The larger schools had obtained an inordinate share or the distribution. Four schools in Wellington had received £1055 10s among them, made up as follows: —Newtown. £351 18s, Clyde quay £293 13s, Te Aro £209 13s, and Mount Cook £2OO 6s. Five head masters with salaries and allowances varying from £345 to £360 divided amongst them £194 18s; fourteen teachers (a large majority of them women) divided £Bl9 Bs. In the Clyde quay School fourteen teachers received increases, and three did not; in the Thorndou School two received increases and ten did not: in Newtown twelve received prizes and eleven did not; and in Masterton three received additions and eight did not. Then, in the Newtown School, three teachers divided £213 among them, and the head master, with a salary of £305. was to get an increase of £63; one of the females with a salary of £IOO was to receive an addition of £B6 4s, and another with a salary of £125 Avas to receive an additional £63 2s. In Petone three teachers divided an increase of £209 11s. and the heqd master, with a salary of £345, got £SO 7s increase. He asked them to contrast these. increases with those of a good many of the struggling teachers in the bush and country districts. In Martinborougn they had a lady pupil teacher, who had been in the service for a considerable time, receiving cn.lv £25, on which to support herself, and she was only to get an increase of £5.

Mr Hogben pointed out that this was a mistake. The Department had nothing to indicate that the teacher referred to was in her fourth or fifth year, and they asked the Board for such information as that, and as to whether she was living with her parents or residing away from home. It they had known these tilings she would have been put down for £55, or an increase of £3O. With regard to the teacher at Wairere, who was only to receive £52 10s, he would say that that was only an aided school, and the teacher at Kakariki. who was only receiving £BO. held no certificate ; he was a mere apprentice. Ml* Hogg continued that the proposals seemed to him most unlikely to carry out the intentions of the Legislature, as apparently teachers receiving large salaries were to receive most of the money.

Mr Robertson said evidently the Department had. some principle on which it had gone, and perhaps the increases were perfectly clear from that point of view,-but apparently there was no maximum salary. If the Department considered the positions hitherto held by juniors should he increased, then those positions should be declared vacant and fresh applications should be called for them. He objected to the system of centralisation, which the Department was going on with. It Was completely ignoring the Boards. The greater power given to the teachers under the new classification was arrjved at by the Department in a most perfunctory manner. Then, just the other day, the Department invited the inspectors to a conference without consulting the

Boards, whose employees they .were, and representatives of the Teachers’ Institute were invited, while the Boards Avere ignored. This centralisation and ignoring of the Beards was entirely opposed to the wishes of Parliament, as Avas evident from the fact that on the only occasions when Parliament had had an opportunity of speaking on the subject of education at all, it had said that the Boards must be recognised. The people of the colony avo uld not stand any attempt to take the education out or the hands of the Boards.

Mr Young said all he knew about the proposal Avas Avhat he had gathered from the papers. In common with his colleagues he knew nothing about the matter. He gathered that the money was being voted by Parliament for the sole purpose of increasing the salaries of teachers in the bush districts and those juniors aa’lio Avere inadequately paid. (Mr Hogg: “ Hear, hear.”) He would put it to any reasonable mdiA'idual: Was that principle being carried out ?

Mr Hogben .said there were positions which every other Education Board in the colony recognised, and the general scheme must be drawn up for what the Boards recognise elsewhere.

The Minister said he Avas very sorry if he had not kept his promise to furnish the Board with particulars of th© scheme beforehand. Me belieA'ed he was fulfilling his promise when he sent down the list of proposed increases. What had been said that afternoon had shown that there was nothing in the list that could not be reconciled with comparative ease, and he did not think the anomalies were more than could be pointed out in any scheme whatever, existing or contemplated. There .must be anomalies where the conditions varied, and in a neiv country the conditions very often. There must he anomalies eA r en where they adhered to rules, and he Avas told that the Board itself did not adhere to its oAvn scale of salaries. It Avas imperative to break through the rules in order to meet some particular cases. Of course, the Board Avould recognise that what would be expected of one Board should be the same as was expected of the other Boards in the colony. It was one of the greatest misfortunes that the conditions of teaching in the different pixmnce.s should vary to a A*ery large extent. The general intention of Parliament had been to give the additional 5s capitation back to the teachers from Avhom it Avas taken some fourteen years ago, and he did not remember any shadow of a promise that it was to go in any particular direction, or to any particular class of teacher. An endeavour had been made to put the teachers on the same basis as obtains in other parts of the Avorld. He trusted that the result of the conference Avould he to convince the members of the Board that it Avould.be impossible to remove many of the difficulties that now existed in the way of the proposals. After further conversational discussion, it was resolved that the chairman and secretary and some members of the Education Board should confer with the Board’s inspectors and reAnse the list, Avith a AueAA 7 - to make further suggestions to the Minister.