THE TEACHER'S HIRE
By F. R. HURLSTONE-JONES
THE terms of the proposals of the Burnham Committee with reference to the salary scales of teachers in primary and secondary schools are, as usual, the results of patient negotiation carried on in an atmosphere of goodwill and common interest between two panels who have more than a nodding acquaintance with each other's difficulties. The agreed recommendations mark another small step forward along the difficult road that must be travelled before the teaching profession can be confident of obtain- ing, and retaining, an adequate supply of the kind of men and women that it needs—and will need—to discharge efficiently the duties laid upon it by the Education Act of i944.
A combination of circumstances renders it extremely difficult to estimate from the existing figures of recruitment the probable future supply : the demobilisation within a short period of time of large numbers of men and women from H.M. Forces, the great improve- ment in the basic salary scale of the qualified teacher, with its allowance of annual increments for the period of national service, the Emergency Training Scheme, the Government grants for further education, and above all the brave future outlined in the Education Act with its urgent call for service to the community, have all com- bined to produce a somewhat abnormal bulge in the supply curve of the teaching profession. On the other hand, however, this same period has witnessed an exodus from the profession of hundreds of experienced teachers who have preferred to enter other vocations, When, for instance, during a period of eighteen months 1,34o men leave the staffs of some boo grammar schools, it indicates that all is not well in a very vital section of the national system of education. To provide for stability and for future development, the conditions of service in the teaching profession should obviously be such that they will not only attract, but also hold, men and women of the right character and capacity.
It is to be hoped—but with a reasonable measure of doubt—that the new fturnham proposals will allay some of the uneasiness, for they are a welcome attempt to remedy some of the obvious defects of the 1945 agreement. The raising of the basic salary scale of the two-year trained qualified teacher by £30 per annum throughout, so that it is now £330 by annual increments of Lis to £555, was another satisfactory step further away from the deplorable pre-war penury. Whether an increase in the amount of the annual increment or a larger addition to the maximum would be more attractive than an addition to the existing minimum is a matter of opinion. To increase the minimum will probably help to stimulate recruitment, but as a long-term policy and to prevent drift from the profession it is possible that larger annual increments and a higher maximum might be a sounder investment even though it would entail higher pension expenditure.
The new proposals are unlikely to increase the proportion of graduates in the profession, and it cannot be considered satisfactory that at present only about 15 per cent. of the whole number of teachers hold university degrees or their equivalents. The pay- ment of an extra £30 per annum throughout the scale at a time when there will be an increasing demand for graduates in maw other branches of public and private service is hardly likely to attract an adequate supply of suitable men and women from the universities when the existing abnormality of supply passes away. To defer the period of earning for one, two or even three years beyond the normal two years involves a heavy financial sacrifice for which adequate recompense should be made, and it is difficult to believe that a graduate addition of £30 plus an allowance of £15 per annum for each extra year meets the case.
Further, the loss involved by postponement of the time when earn- ing begins is not the whole story, for teachers' scholarships which cover fees and maintenance during term time (or an allowance there- for) leave a large gap between income and expenditure, and experi- ence shows that too much reliance must not be placed on the assurance "that no man or woman need be debarred by poverty from entering the teaching profession." Sir Richard Livingstone, in a letter to The Times Educational Supplement of July 12th, points out how vital to the future of this country is the need for attracting men and women of high intellectual ability to the staffs of the grammar schools, and expresses the opinion that " with the present Burnham Scale there is no prospect of attracting such teachers." Here he touches a problem which is causing increasing anxiety to those responsible for the organisation of the work in these schools. The number of candidates taking the Higher School Certificate Examination has risen from ir,000 to 22,000 per annum, and it is clear that if the standard of this VIth form work—on which so much of the national welfare will depend—is to be maintained it will be necessary to increase the proportion of highly trained graduates in these schools. Will the new proposals of the Burnham Committee serve this purpose ?
The addition of a further £30 per annum to the salary of a graduate with a First Class Honours degree seems unlikely to prove an effective remedy in the face of competition for men of first-rate ability. Apart from the difficulty of equating the standards of different universities, or even different faculties of the same university, there remains the incontestable fact that much of the most success- ful VIth.form work is done by teachers of first-rate ability who have—owing very often to width of outside interests—obtained a good Second Class Honours degree. Other salary scales—such as the Teviot Scale—pay due recognition to this fact and to the need for this type of teacher. Apparently, this extra payment would not be made to those teachers who, at a later stage, obtain higher degrees by post-graduate study or research. Despite all its difficulties of interpretation, the phrase " high academic attainment " in the old Burnham Reports did provide a very reasonable elasticity of inter- pretation. It may be contended, however, that any man of high academic attainments who is a successful teacher will soon qualify for the award of a special allowance in addition to his ordinary salary,
The raising of the upper limit for these posts from kroo to Lr5o per annum, with the possibility of a higher figure than L15o in special circumstances, is a welcome improvement, which is made more real by the abolition of the inequitable and indefensible " merger " clause. It seems possible also that an increase in the number of qualified teachers may result in the award of an increased number of special allowances. Although there is much force in the argument that these additional payments go to the teachers who have proved their efficiency and whose services are of special value to the schools in which they work, there is in this system an element of uncertainty which makes it less attractive than a higher salary scale. Past experience seems to prove that there have not been enough of these allowances to cover all those who deserved them, the distribution amongst the different types of schools has varied, and their allocation between equally meritorious candidates has been a matter of considerable difficulty. Moreover, a range of value from £50 to £150 admits of considerable variation of practice in different areas ; and it would certainly be an advantage if some measure of common policy could be adopted by education authorities. If these allowances are to be regarded as an effective substitute for a higher salary scale in attracting men or women of high qualifications to the teaching profession, there will need to be, in the future, more cer- tainty as to their value and their tenure, and more general agreement as to the nature of the services for which they are a reward.
Headmasters and headmistresses will welcome the change in the method of assessing their salaries, though these are still wedded to the basic scale and still largely dependent on the counting of heads. The new proposal does, however, recognise that the age of the pupils is a good indication of the range and scope of the work of the school, and that the longer the pupils stay at school the more complex and exacting are the duties of the headmaster or head- mistress.
The additional allowance above basic salary paid to the head of the school is determined by the "unit total" of points of the pupils of the school. Each pupil under 15 years of age provides one point, each between 15 and 16 four points, 16 to 17 seven points, over 17 ten points. This method of calculation tells somewhat heavily against the small school, but it would, presumably, still be open to the Local Education Authority to appeal to the Minister for permission to pay a higher salary than that determined by the "unit total." With the abolition of the " merger ' clause the graduate headmaster or headmistress will no longer be subject to the loss of his graduate allowance, and it seems probable that the heads of grammar schools, who came off so badly in the Burnham Agreement of 1945, will, as a whole, fare better under the new proposals.
It was unfortunate that the negotiations for a fresh agreement should have, unavoidably, taken place at a time when the country was faced with so many difficult economic problems and when the shadow of a financial crisis was lurking on the horizon. On the one hand the Authorities' Panel were faced with the problem of securing the approval of their constituents to an increase of expenditure, and on the other the Teachers' Panel were only too well aware that any agreement that could be reached in the existing circumstances would cause disappointment to many of those whom they represented. Taken as a whole, the proposals represent a reasonable compromise between conflicting claims, and the Burnham Committee has again proved its value as a medium for peaceful and successful negotiation. The last word, of course, remains with the Minister of Education, and it is to be hoped that he will be successful in securing the assent of the Treasury to this moderate, but sorely needed, increase of expenditure.
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