Education Act.

Opunake Times, Volume II, Issue 81, 12 April 1895, Page 3

Education Act.

#■ At the Conference at Invercargill it was decided to recommend the Minister of Education to amend the Education Act so as to make it imperative on boards to carry out reforms in the following directions :—(l)—That a uniform scale of staff be adopted by the various Boards. (2)—The Council recommends to the Minister of Education tha scale of staff adopted by the Otago Board. (3)—That all schools and positions under boards be classified on a basis of average attendance, providing -for a uniform scale of salary throughout the colony.' (4)—That in order to secure a systematic method of promotion, a minimum qualification be wqaired for each class of position. The scale of staff in force in Otago is as follows:—Attendance, 20 to 40, one head teacher; attendance, 41 to 50, one head teacher and one sewing mistress ; attendance, 51 to 75, one head teacher, one pupil teacher, and a sewing mistress, or one head teacher and one female assistant at £Boayear; attendance, 76 to 110, one head teacher and one mistress; attendance, 111 to 150, one head teacher, one mistress and one pupil teacher ; attendance, 151 to 180, one head teacher, one mistress, and two pupil teachers. And so on, a school of 500 having a staff of one head teacher, five assistants, and six pupil teachers, or one pupil teacher more than is allowed in this district for an averageof 431. It is proposed to classify the schools as follows: First class •shool, with an average of over-500; second, class when the average is between 850 and 500; third class, from 181 to 850; fourth .class, from 51 to 180; fifth class* from 20 to 50. It is also proposed to appoint females only to schools where the average is less than 80. This would obviate the necessity of appointing sewing mistresses to such schools, and schools of this size could in this way be worked quite as efficiently and at a much smaller cost than than they are at present. ———