NEW SCALE OF PAY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19697, 1 August 1938, Page 2

NEW SCALE OF PAY

SCHOOL TEACHERS " BASIS ADJUSTED STABILISING STAFFS COUNTRY INSTITUTIONS (P«r Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. Important, adjustments in the scale of remuneration of teachers were announced on Saturday by the Minister of Education, the Hon. P. Eraser, who expressed the opinion that the adjust* ■r.ents would go a Jong way towards j the stabilisation of school staffs and I effect an improvement in the staffing j of country schools. The new scheme is to come into operation on October 1 next, but the | whole of the increases are not however, to be granted immediately. The total additional cost in the current financial year will be £57,000. One of the important questions which the Government had under consideration in connection with the reorganisation of the education system was an adjustment in the method of assessing the remuneration of primary ; school teachers in order to secure greater stability in school staffs, said the Minister. It had been a constant source of complaint from school committees and parents that too many and j too frequent chances occurred in the I personnel of teaching staffs, and these j complaints were amply justified. It had long been apparent that a i change in the basis of payment of I teachers was essential to secure the j maximum of efficiency, by making it unnecessary to move in order to ob-1 tain comparatively small increases in j salary. Another important aspect of the question necessitating the adjustment of salaries was the need to make belter provision for the staffing of country schools by means of salaries which i would induce teachers to seek and retain country positions. Approximately 50 per cent of the positions in the primary schools' teaching service | might be regarded as country. Hither- j to, the salaries for many of these j positions had been, in general, on a par with those for many town positions. The result was that better qualified teachers had, on the whole, sought and secured town positions. Here again, it had been obvious that unless some change was made in the basis for determining the salaries, country schools would remain at a disadvantage in securing the services of the more efficient and more experienced teachers. Basis of Adjustments In December, 1930, a committee of "ine was set up to submit proposals {or a new salary and staffing scheme for primary schools. The committee's

] report .forms the basis of the adjustments which were now to be made. The new scale provides.for a greater range of increments and also for a reduction in the number of grades of salaries. Briefly, the new scale represents an adjustment on two main principles; (a) payment of the teacher on a basic scale according to years of service; (b) payment according to the position occupied. Thus the position salary would be paid in addition to the rate under the basic scale to head and sole teachers, to infant mistresses, to senior men and women assistants, to assistants in secondary departments of district high schools and to assistants in jpther special positions wan-anting some additional payment. Some of the features of the new scheme are the basic scale, which will commence at £l9O per annum and end at £370 per annum, for head and sole teachers and for men assistants, and will commence at £l7O per annum and end at £330 per annum for women assistants, additional position salaries for head and sole teachers, which will range from, £SO per annum in the lowest grade to £230 per annum in the highest grade, and additional position salaries for assistant teachers, which v/ill range in general from £2O to £6O per annum, and will be paid according to the position occupied and the grade of school. Married Allowances. A married allowance at the rate of £SO per annum, hitherto paid only to married men assistants, will be paid to married head sole men teachers. The house allowance hitherto paid to head and sole teachers, where a residence has not been provided, will be discontinued, and there will be readjustments in the respect of the occupancy of school residences. Native school teachers, staffs of the training colleges and the primary department of the correspondence school are included in the scheme. "I feel that the adjustment of the salary scale will go a long way toward securing the main objects in view, namely, the stabilisation of cchool staffs and an improvement in the staffing of country schools," said Mr. Fraser. "It is regretted, however, that complete stabilisation is not obtainable in consequence of the loss to the service of about 500 teachers every year through retirements, marriages and deaths. "It will be generally agreed that it is essential that the conditions and remuneration of the teaching profession should be such as will attract to the service men and women who arc best equipped and most suitable for the imporant work of teaching the children of the Dominion. The Government's efforts in this direction, embodied in the salary section of the new scheme, will be generally appreciated and approved, particularly by parents. "New staffing proposals, with the object of reducing the size of classes, are under consideration, but these cannot be brought into operation until a sufficient number of teachers are available. With this object in view, the numbers of students in the training colleges have been greatly increased during the past two years." A