THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, JULY 12, 1901.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 12093, 12 July 1901, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, JULY 12, 1901.

At the last meeting of the Education Boavd there Was read from the Education department a letter which contained fresh proposals for the distribution of the extra grant set apart for the augmentation of salaries; and it appears to us, after perusing the tables supplied by the board's secretary, that the severe criticisms passed by members of the board on the department's action wore quite justified. Broadly speaking, the board and the department differ on two 'apparently irreconcilable points: the department raises many (by comparison) high salaries, and the board makes no recommendations in such cases; whereas, on the other hand, the board wishes to make substantial additions to the salaries of teachers who are teaching in unaided schools and are drawing less than £100 a year, while the department ignores the board's recommendations, especially if the teachers are teaching in schools where the average attendance is under lfi. As regards the first point—and it involves the second,—we think that, while none of the salaries can, under any stretch of imagination, be called princely, the board is, under (he circumstances, quite justified in discountenancing any increases of salaries in our large schools until the country teachers, especially those who are sole , teachers, are paid a living wage. Twenty-seven shillings a week—and that is what many teachers in unaided schools are getting—is no salary to give a young man or woman who has, passed through an expensive and arduous training, and who has then to cut, himself or herself off from the social and educational advantages connected with city life. In our Dunedin schools there are about 30 certificated teachers whom the department marks out, for increases—one school alone containing five who arc to receive, in the aggregate, an increase of £82 odd,—while there are about the same number (30) in remote districts, living an unenviable life of isolation, who draw .£7O a year, and who, according to the department, are to be absolutely ignored! Now, in the light of what has been laid bare by the commission, we think that what the department imagines to be the board's sin is really the board's virtue. But perhaps there is an explanation to the department's position. Is it that the department, acting possibly on the recommendations of the New Zealand Educational Institute, is setting its face against all schools under an average of ]fi, the minimum put down in the tentative' schemes issued by the late Inspectorgeneral ? Apparently so: at any rate, that is the only conclusion that ran be arrived at when comparing the two first schemes put forward. But a third scheme has now been spmn" upon the colony, in which the minfmuin attendance has been put down with a minimum "salary of •£75. ' Now, neither the institute, as far as we know its workings, nor the colony, desires the abolition of

small schools. AV lmt has been spoken against is Iheiv undue inultiplicnlion, wlm-h i s a Uli Hfe different from tl, e jr There are instances h, otago of thc establishment ot schools unnecessarily close to one another; but distance as the crow flies i s not a criterion, for as hr as children are concerned, there nve schools within two or three miles of O ne another, yet the distance between them—such are the physical features of the country—is such that it would bo unreasonable to expect children attending one to be, in thc event of that being closed, in attendance at the other. Again, it. seems to us that the board has more accurately gauged the situation than the department, when it refuses to recognise such a low salary as £75; and it is backed up in this decision by the weight of evidence tendered to the commission, as well as by the difficulty it has experienced in filling these low-salaried positions. If one tiling has been pointed out more clearly than another, it is the hard fact that lads of promise cannot be persuaded in sufficient numbers to enter thc teaching profession; and as, in the very nature of things, the proportion of small schools must be necessarily large, there must be a large number of teachers who will never get much more than an ordinary living wage. This again shows the board's wisdom in giving the large increments to salaries under .£IOO, and the smaller ones to salaries between .£IOO and about J!160. By way of parenthesis we may note that Professor Salinond at the presentation of diplomas on Friday afternoon last drew attention to the serious falling off of candidates for the teaching profession; and as his remarks are very much to the point they will bear repetition. He said: " Hitherto teachers- had formed a very large and important section of tins students attending the classes, and the falling off existed among the body of present and prospective teachers. There was' a serious danger in regard to this profession, that we might some day revert to that old order of tilings when every man and woman who could do nothing else attempted to teach a school or preach a sermon. If this was not checked it would be a serious mattei for the University, and a much more serious matter for the community at large. Ho feared the country was not sufficiently alive to this aspect of the matter, and of the serious consequences that would follow."

A closer, but by no means a detailed, examination of the department's proposals reveals one or two interesting facts which make it a mystery to us how the department's figures are arrived at. In many instances we can sec an approximation to one or other of the scales drawn up by Inspector-general Hogben ; but under what scheme or principle has the department acted when it changed from one se , - of figures to another? The figures arc almost provocative of profanity when an attempt is made to work them out. In school A, with an attendance of 18, the present salary is £70; the- department proposed £95, the board £91, and then the department springs to £100. In B, with an average of 31, the figures given are £105, £134 ■£121, £126; in C, with an average of 16, we get £70, £90, £91, £85. In A and C the department proposes a. rise on Uie present salary; the board does the same, but does not line up with tlw department, and then the department to all appearances compromises. But what about B 1 In 1) the smne thing occurs. The attendance is 22 and present salary £85; the department suggests £99 7s, the board £101, then the department jumps to £110—a rise of over 23 per cent.! But large as this increment is, a town assistant drawing over £100 a year is to be raised over 37 per cent.! Considering these abnormal rises, and remembering that the department utterly ignores (or seemingly so, for the figures supplied by Mi- Pryde to the board make no reference to them) nearly 30 teachers in unaided schools, all drawing £70 a year, one wonders whether equity entered at all into the calculations of the department. Of these 30, in round numbers, the board proposes to give an increase of £21 to each of six and £6 to each of the others, the difference presumably being on account of difference in attendance. Surely this £G, representing. an increase of nearly 10 per cent., is better added to the salaries of these wretchedly paid teachers than to the salariesnf the head masters of our larger schools, for most of them are raised by about that amount; and surely a female assistant in the country drawing less than £100 is more worthy of an increment than her more favoured town friend drawing over £100. The board thinks so, and we think so too.

.flien, again, pupil teachers under (ho department's second scale are in many cases to be reduced 20 per cent Why? To find the money for the lew already in receipt of fairly reasonable salaries? It cannot be 1 00 clearly slated that young teachers nuwt receive more generous treatment; and we must reiterate what wo said m a previous article • a fair remuneration must be given f or workdone m our smaller, and therefore country, schools. Broadly speaking, tie requirements are belter met by the board's proposal than by either of Hie proposals put forth by the department; and, seeing that the department's proposals are admittedly unconnected; with any colonial scale, and that the board has a more intimate knowledge of Otago's retirements, it is, to say the least of it, extremely ungracious of the depart! ment to refuse to acquiesce in the board's allocation of the special grant Have our Otago M.H.R/S done b ; handV 0 fOrCe the de P Mtme »t'»