28 APRIL 1961, Page 13

THE TEACHER'S LOT

SIR.—There are stil' several points which need making in this controversy. (1)1 can think of no other profession in which there ri so slight a differential between graduates (or their equivalent) and the non- graduate grade, as in teaching. One only has to think of the differentials between doctors and nurses, solici- tors and managing clerks. etc.. to see this point.

(2) Parity seems to work only one way. Is not a sixth-form master doirg work very much closer to a university lecturer's than to an infant teacher's?

(3) Other European countries make a sharp dis- tinction between gradbate and non graduate teachers.

In France there arc two distinct professions and there the a,grege can earn up to £2.000 p.a. for fif= teen hours' teaching without extraneous duties.

(4) A good graduate teacner will find that his for- mer university colleagues are now earning two to four times as much as he is. Even heads of big gram- mar schools may, for financial reasons, be cut off from social contacts with general practitioners and lawyers who will probably eare twine as much. But the com-

• Parable alternative professions for a girl with five GCE ordinary level passes-are. say. nursing or secre-

tarial work and the non-graduate woman teacher is already receiving more than she would get in these professions.

As the graduate is heavily m a minority in the pro- fession and as the Burnham Committee teachers' Panel is largely dominated by the mainly non- graduate NUT, it is he wtn has received less than justice.—Yours faithfully.

GRAMMAR SCHOOL HEADMASTER

[Name and address supplied.]