TEACHERS' SALARIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2809, 15 January 1908, Page 18

TEACHERS' SALARIES.

AN EDUCATION BOARD SPEAKS OUT. : CHRISTCHURCH, January 8. At to-day's meeting of the North Canterbury Education Board the Appointments Committee reported .that it had considered letters from the School Committees' Asso- ■ ciation on the question of teachers' salaI ries, the following resolution being passed: j " That this committee, though recognising | that payment according to attendance of pupils must always be taken into account in framing any practicable scheme of i teachers' salaries, is of opinion that the j present system of payment of teachers ! according to average attendance only is j inimical to the best interests of education, j and recommends the board to request the; I Minister of Education to consider the advisability of modifying it so as to secure to the teachers a larger degree of fixity of salary without any sacrifice of stimulus to work." In moving .the adoption of the report incorporating the resolution, Mr T. W. Adams, the chairman of the committee, said some stimulus should be given to teachers to keep their classes up to a proper numerical standard. Mr D. Buddo, M.P., in seconding, welcomed the resolution as marking a step forward towards putting teachers upon a, better basis. It was a blot upon the wholesystem that school teachers, of all public servants, should be dependent upon circum- 1 stances for their salaries and that their ; earnings should rise and fall with the occurrence of epidemics. Their salaries depended upon such -extraneous happenings and not (as it should be) upon their own industry. He hoped to see the introduction of_ some more effective means for getting children to school. It was a pity that the teachers should be penalised because children were not sent to school. He predicted that the time would come when teachers' salaries would not be at the j mercy of circumstances over which they : had no control. I Mr C. A. C. Hardy, M.P., said his experience was that the most successful ' ] teachers were those who saw to the attend- ' j ance of the children personally and,, worked , hand-in-hand with their committees. If such a teacher looked up defaulters he got , into touch and sympathy with the parents i and made the work twice as easy. Truant , officers were meant for the town 6 and not j for the country. In the country it was j the duty of the committees to see that the children attended. If they rose to a sense of their responsibilities and brought a case or .two much good would be donel He hoped some way could be devised of getting round epidemics, which were very hard on the teachers. The Secretary stated that there were 24 cases in North Canterbury in which staffs ' would be reduced unless the average . attendances for last year *?ere accepted, instead of the averages for this year. The motion was agreed to. i | I [ ! j < 1