15

1.—13b

1. The Chairman.} In Grade X there is an immediate increase of £10 in addition to an annual increase of £5, while the teachers in Grade IX have no immediate increase?— All teachers get an immediate increase of £5 unless they have already reached the maximum. All are treated alike. There is provision in the Bill to that effect. In Grade IXa the salary of the head teacher is now £320 or £350, while under this Bill it will be £340 to £370. In Grade IXb the salary of the head teacher is now £330 or £340; it will be £340 to £370. In Grade IXc the salary of the head teacher is £340 or £350; it will also be £340 to £370. In Grade Xα the present salary is £360; under the Bill, the headmaster will get £370 to £400. In each case the headmaster will get an increment of £5 a year. 2. Then it is not true that in Grade X an immediate increase of £10 is given?— No. So long as the master remains in the same position there is an annual increment of £5 to the salary he received at the commencement of this Act until his salary reaches the maximum for the grade. All receive an increment of £5 in Grades IX and X. There are only a few in Grade IV who do not receive an increment, and that is because they have already reached the maximum. 3. It is pointed out that in schools of 1,300 the work of the junior assistants would vary considerably, and that some of them have to take large Third or Fourth Standards in large rooms. Would you suggest anything in the way of subgrades to meet that difficulty? —I cannot. Those large schools will be greatly reduced in six or seven years. The tendency in ten years would Ec to a reduction to 600 or 700. A school of 1,300 would have twenty-seven on the staff. At the present moment the headmaster has or can have twenty pupil-teachers. There wuold be twenty-six assistants altogether, and that would be enough. 4. In regard to a district "high school that is in Grade X, the question was asked whether it would not be fair to add to the salary of the head teacher who had a side school to look after as well as his own?— The side school is counted in when the school is graded; he has the benefit of that already. 5. There are very few schools in the colony with more than 1,200? —There is only one school with more than 1,020. 6. lion. Mr. Fowlds.] How many between 600 and 1,000? —Thirteen over 600. 7. The Another question is, do you think a Civil Service man with nine assistants should be paid the same as the head teacher of a large school with nineteen assistants?—l do not believe we ought to have a school so large as this implies; I think the machine is too cumbrous. If, after reaching 600, you are going to increase the salary with the size of the school, you will make it the business of the teachers to try and increase the school. 8. Do the most highly paid assistants get the greatest advance—in a school of 600, say?— There is not only increase of salary to be considered, but there is the number of positions to which persons can be promoted. If you increase the pay of the lower assistants they will not be willing to take charge of country schools. Any promotion is open to them by going into the country, and it is necessary that they should have inducements sufficient to go into the country. 9. The first assistant of si school of 600 will receive £240, rising to £270. Can you make it begin at £270, rising to £290 by annual increments as in Grade X thirteen individuals in the colony come in that last category. If you divide their increase among the other assistants you will only give a small amount of increase to the rest—a few shillings perhaps. Mr. Hogben (in answer to the Chairman): A school of 160 has one more assistant than a school of 81. The extreme top of 6a has one more assistant than a school of 81 which is at the bottom of Grade V. There is an error in line 6a of the schedule in the Bill :" 1 " is printed instead of " 2." Ido not say that there is no anomaly in the Bill. You cannot make a perfect system. We have endeavoured to avoid anomaly, but I will not say that there is no anomaly in the Bill. Tdo not think that the cases mentioned by Mr. Allen are anomalies. They existed before. The state of things before was anomalous. We are now providing one teacher for every 40 until reaching 200. Hitherto it has been one adult teacher or an equivalent (two pupil-teachers) for every 50 up to 200. (In answer to Mr. Hardy): It is utterty essential to make the increments in salary begin at the same time in the cases of all teachers; the Ist of January, is the date named in the Bill. If a teacher is transferred to a lower position : yes, in that case the salary begins at the minimum. Ido not think there is anything in the Bill that will cause friction. A new teacher graded Iβ, 2a begins at a minimum of £105 in Subgrade Iβ and goes on to a maximum in Subgrade 2a of £135. His salary increases £5 a year until it reaches the maximum. In regard to the definition of the part-time* schools the Bill does not alter the law. In a school of 660 there would be one headmaster and fourteen assistants. In such a school there would be an infants' department attached, with an attendance of, say, 195 in the preparatory classes ; but that infants' department would include also in Standard I, say, 80; making a total of 275, with five assistants. That would leave you one headmaster and nine assistants for a little less than 400 children : and you could easily give the boys' side and the girls' side one teacher for each class, Standards V and VI being grouped together. There would be four classes on each side, and nine assistants—one assistant to spare, who could be put into the infant department, making six assistants there. So that you could still have separate boys' and girls' departments in a school of 660; but personally I should not organize the school in that way; I should prefer to strengthen the infant department still further. 10. Mr. Hardy, ,] It is desirable to make the provisoes and exceptions as few as possible, and that we should have a scale in which all certificated teachers are treated alike. That ought to be regulated by the amount of work done?— There are many provisoes, and the object is to prevent the school or the staff from suffering. 11. The work of the teachers may be increased? —It is not increased now. 12. Are there not more provisoes and many more new proposals than formerly?— There are more in the Bill, but there will be less in the regulations.