April 19, 19 17] 



Viewed in another wav : — 



468 headmasters 

 4,783 certificated 



assistant-masters 

 4,847 headmistresses 

 32,013 certificated 



assistant-mistres 



NATURE 



157 



SS j' 



s-ses j 



Received less than 

 looZ. a year = less 

 ' than 38s. 6d. per 

 week. 



Total 42,111 certificated teachers 



From these meagre sunos, 3/. 12s.- for men and 

 2\. 8s. for women are deducted e.very year towards an 

 equally meagre superannuation allowance. These 

 thousands of professional, educated men and women, 

 selected by the State, medically examined at more 

 than one stage of their academic preparation and 

 professional training, tested by his Majesty's inspectors 

 of schools as to fitness over and over again — these 

 men and women are disgracefully and shamefully 

 paid. These are strong words, but'not too strong in 

 face of the facts, whether viewed in their individual 

 incidence or in bulk — i.e. 42,111 out of 105,930 fully 

 certificated teachers employed in 1915, or about 40 

 per cent., received less than 38.?. per week. Further, 

 these figures take no account of the salaries of 41,000 

 uncertificated teachers and 13,000 supplementary- 

 teachers, in which classes the salaries are probabiv 

 not more than ^o per cent, of those for the certificated 

 teachers above mentioned. 



It may be argued by some that these low salaries 

 are limited to the inexperienced members of the pro- 

 fession. It is not so, as will be shown. The 42,000 

 certificated teachers receiving less than 100/. per 

 annum are, as a body, not inexperienced, for thev 

 represent at least a' ten-years' supply. This line, 

 which I have drawn at looZ. a year should be, in my 

 opinion, the minimum salary permitted by the Board' 

 of Education. It should be the basis of, the teachers' 

 contract clause. Below that standard, no man or 

 woman, having passed through the full training 

 course, and commencing a professional career at 

 twenty or twenty-one years of age, should be engaged. 

 Any product not worth looZ. a year ought not to be 

 entrusted with the vital work of teaching children. 

 With 250/. as a minimum wage for a medical prac- 

 titioner upon the bodv, surely even 150/. is not an 

 ambitious or unreasonable starting salary for a newly 

 trained teacher, a fully qualified practitioner upon the 

 child's mental, moral, and physical development. That 

 ripe experience and long service do not always carry 

 a fuller reward is shown by the following cases 

 collected a few months ago by the National Union of 

 Teachers : — 



(a) Headmaster in eastern county, appointed thirty- 

 years ago at 87/. per annum, present salarj- 96Z. 

 During these thirty years he must have satisfied the 

 Board of Education, or he would not have held his 

 post. His reward for -thirty years' service is an 

 increase of gl. per annum. 



(b) Headmaster in eastern county, af^X)inted more 

 than forty years ago at yol., now receives 95Z., with 

 no increase during the past seven years. 



(c) Headmistress, count\' near metropolis,' com- 

 menced service in present post thirly^ years ago at 

 48Z., and now receives 70Z. 



(d) Headmistress, neighbouring county, appointed 

 at 235. per week thirty-five years ago, has never 

 received a farthing increase during the whole time. 



(e) Headmistress, a Welsh county, salary was 90Z. 

 for twenty-six years without revision. 



(/) Headmistress, a Welsh county, has held post for 

 thirt>'-three years, and advanced in salary from 90/. 

 to 97Z. los. 



(g) Headmistress in East .Anglia receives 70Z. after 

 eighteen years of service. 



NO. 2477, VOL. 99] 



(/i) Headmistress in the broad-acred county receives 

 salary of 80Z. after service of seventeen years. 



These are but typical cases. They throw a search- 

 ing light upon the conditions of rural teachers. Small 

 wonder is it that some county authorities advertise 

 scores of vacancies for teachers, posts they can never 

 hope to fill again at the wretched salaries offered. 



Another aspect of the problem is the opening up 

 to young educated people of other avenues and walks 

 of life which are more attractive in prospects, less 

 costly in training, less exacting in the daily task, and 

 more substantially remunerative. The bank success- 

 fully competes with the classroom for the ser>ices of 

 the educated woman. The counting-house, the in- 

 surance oflftce, the. engineering works, to say nothing 

 of the other professions, provide far brighter'prospects 

 for the youth than he can hope to realise as a teacher. 

 Thus the teaching profession stands to lose its fair 

 proportion of the supply of the best brains the nation 

 produces. The only sources of supply likelv to remain 

 permanently are the few vocationa'lly called to the 

 labour, and those who find themselves eliminated from 

 other more coveted positions by the sieve of com- 

 petition. 



Those already in the ser\ice find themselves 

 cramped, barred, and chained by small prospect of 

 promotion to higher posts, both professional and ad- 

 ministrative, and by the narrow limits of the scale 

 of salaries. The class-master of to-day has in most 

 large towns only a i in 100 chance of promotion to 

 a headmastership, and this for the fortunate few 

 rarely takes place before they are forty-five years of 

 age. His position is therefore practically perrnanent, 

 and his salary stationary until the end — his retire- 

 ment at sixty-five years of age. If the fully qualified 

 class teacher is to survive as a professionally living 

 force in the schools, the outlook must be made 

 brighter and the position such ^s will provide for an 

 educated man or woman a satisfactor}- career in itself 

 and within its own confines. The present salaries fall 

 far short of such prospects. 



Inadequate retiring allowances further accentuate 

 the check upon the supply of teachers. The fnaximum 

 pension for a master retiring now at sixt\--five years 

 of age, after forty-five years- of service, is 69/.,' and 

 for a mistress 60Z. Further, the Teachers' Superannua- 

 tion -Act of 1898 applies only to service in State-aided 

 primary- schools. Ser\-ice in a secondary, technical, or 

 other school does not count. This places an obstacle 

 in the way of that free intercourse from one t\-pe of 

 school to another which is so essential for the life 

 and vigour of our educational system from the kinder- 

 garten to the university. A pension scheme embrac- 

 ing all sections of the profession is long overdue. 

 The retiring age of sixty-fi\^ is far too high, and 

 retirement sliould be optional at sixty. The fact that 

 the premiums paid (3Z. 125. per annum for men and 

 2Z. Ss. for women for possibly forty-five years) are 

 non-returnable in the case of death before pension age 

 is unsatisfactory. This basis may have been justified 

 in the early years of the scheme, when fewer premiums 

 were paid in by those reaching pension age, but as 

 time ^oes on this system becomes more and more 

 speculative, and indeed approaches the nature of .'1 

 gamble. Scotland has granted to the whole of the 

 teaching profession a pension scheme without these 

 defects, and what Scotland did yesterday England can 

 do to-day. If the same careful forethought, the same 

 skilful plans and designs, and the same generous 

 consideration which are used to cajole young persons 

 into the profession were applied to schemes for the 

 improvement of the teacher's prospects in his riper 

 years and old age, a permanent and ample supph of 

 excellent material for the teaching staff of the nation's 

 schools would follow as the dawn follows the night. 



