THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 144084, 1 May 1913, Page 8

THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

LACK OF MALE TEACHERS

In his report to tho householders of his school district at the annual meetting in the South Wellington-. School on Monday evening, Mr. Goo. Flux (headmaster of the school) referred to the danger which threatened the education system owing to the constant changes in tho personnel .of the staffs of the schools. “1 have been led to speak of this,” said Mr. Flux, ‘‘because wo have suffered in this particu-, lar more this year than im any year since the school was established. I am not blaming any particular person or bodv of persons for this state of affairs," least of all the teachers vyho have left us in the endeavour to better their positions But it docs behove us, for the sake of our pupils, to endeavour to find the cause and the remedy for a position which is, to a great extent, rendering our efforts, nugatory. “Seeing from the inside, as I do, the extent of tho evil and the loss occasioned bv it. I should bo lacking in my duty,”, said. tho .speaker, ‘ ‘if X did not draw your attention: to what I consider the’crux of tho matter. I have no hesitation in saying that this lies in thp. miserable pay in the education service, especially, but .not .entirely', hi the lower grades of tbo service. It is true that,■ within recent .years, some improvement has been: effected,, but when it is remembered that tho cost of living lias increased correspondingly the improvement has been more apparent than real. _ ~ , , “Why is it, ’’ asked Mr. Flux, “that ■there-is such a dearth cf male applicants.,for the service? , Although a considerable number of - the best girl pupils of this school have adopted the teaching profession there is not a single, example of a boy having done so during the seventeen years of my . experience in this'school. I am not blind to tho fact that some of this shyness on the part 1 of males is tbo result of reluctance to face the years of necessary study and training to fit them for tho work—years during which they have to be dependent on their parents for a considerable portion of their support, There is not a similar shyness, however, where law and other professions are concerned; indeed, a good many of the more promising and ambitious young men in tills profession only make it a stepping stone to other professions', because in them they can satisfy their ambition, and in the teaching profession they cannot. If tho latter is the noble profession we are so constantly having it dinned into onr cars:that it'is, then it is worth paying for. We shall never succeed in attracts ing to, and keeping in, tho profession the best of our young people, until the public of the Dominion grasp this elementary truth.. You will naturally say that Now Zealand is already} spending a large sum on education, a sum probably relatively larger than a good Many other States are paying. Even if this be granted, it has to. oe admitted that thd scale of payment is failinp:, and will fail, to attract tho brainiest and the most suitable of our young people, and therefore, wherever "else economies may be practised, tho public must be prepared to say that it must not be in this direction.”