Mr. Fisher insisted again and again throughout his wise and
witty speech that the success of the schools depends upon the teachers, and that the best men and women must be drawn into the most noble and arduous of professions. For our part, we have always wondered why successive Ministers of Education and countless Local Authorities have overlooked or despised this obvious and fundamental truth. The good teacher is the salt of the earth, and deserves, but seldom gets, full social consideration as well as a decent salary. The average salary of the certificated male head teacher is 1176, and that of the certificated male assistant Is £120, and the women teachers' average is still less. Before the war there were forty-two thousand two hundred certificated teach drawing salaries of less than 1100, and twenty-six thousand seven hundred receiving less than 190 a year, a wage which many a half- Allied artisan would despise. That is a gross and intolerable scandal which Mr. Fisher means to abolish.
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