§ 61. Mr. EDEasked the President of the Board of Education if he is aware that an advertisement was recently issued inviting teachers between the ages of 30 and 50 years to apply for appointment as assistant inspectors of schools; that the applicants have been informed on interview that the appointment will be subject to accepting the minimum salary; that that salary is £300 per annum plus bonus, which is at present £140 per annum, but will be reduced on 1st September, 1923, to £125 per annum, when the salary, plus bonus, will be equal to that given as the maximum for an elementary school assistant master in Scale IV area; upon whose authority was the acceptance of the minimum salary made a condition of appointment; and whether, in view of the advisability of securing that some of the persons appointed to these posts shall be headmasters of experience, he will direct that an allowance for years of teaching service shall be made in fixing the minimum salary?
Mr. WOODThe answer to the first three parts of the question is in the affirmative. The Board have been unable, in existing financial circumstances, to offer increments for age to assistant inspectors who enter the Board's service at a relatively late age, and I regret that I am not in a position to commit myself to any concession in this respect.