§ Mr. GIBBSasked the President of the Board of Education how many elementary teachers are at present unemployed; what has been the cost of their training to the public funds; and what steps he is taking to so regulate the number of teachers trained at the public expense as to make it more closely approximate to the demand?
§ Mr. TREVELYANAs the answer to this question is very long, my right hon. Friend would be glad if the hon. Member would allow him to circulate it with the Votes to-night.
§ Mr. CARLILEasked the President of the Board of Education, whether the actuarial estimates upon which the Teacher's Superannuation Act was based allowed for a State expenditure of over £500,000 during the first seven years of the Act coming into operation; whether the actual expenditure has been less than £200,000; and whether, seeing that the State pension for a teacher after forty-four years' service is £22 per annum only, although male teachers contribute £3 10s. and female teachers £2 8s. per annum, he is now in a position to recommend that an increase shall be made in the pension rates?
§ Mr. RUNCIMANThe estimates referred to are presumably those appended to the Report of the Departmental Committee on the Superannuation of Teachers which was issued in 1895. The probable cost to the State of the pensions during the first seven years following the establishment of the scheme was there placed at £576,418; the actual cost during that period was £196,178. But the Committee's estimates were based on the supposed maintenance of a staff of about 56,000 certificated teachers, while the number now employed in public elementary schools is about 100,000. This increase has no appreciable effect on the pension charge for the present, but the liability to which the State has committed itself by the Act will probably in 579W future years exceed the amount estimated by the Committee. The last paragraph of the hon. Member's Question appears to be based on a misapprehension. The Super annuation Allowance receivable by a teacher retiring on April 1st, 1910, after forty-four years continuous service would be £40 3s. if a man, and £34 2s. if a woman. Under the scheme of the Act, the Allowance decreases as the number of years service prior to the passing of the Act grows less, but it will not be as small as £22, as stated in the Question, until the year 1943. Moreover, it has no relation to the amount of the teacher's contributions, which are credited to the Deferred Annuity Fund, and produce an annuity which he receives at the age of sixty-five, in addition to any Superannuation Allowance to which he may be entitled. Assuming the present rate of contribution to be maintained, the Annuity receivable by a male teacher retiring after forty-four years' service in 1943 would be about £42, and his total pension would therefore amount to £64.
§ Mr. GIBBSasked the President of the Board of Education how many elementary teachers are at present unemployed; what has been the cost of their training to the public funds; and what steps he is taking to so regulate the number of teachers trained at the public expense as to make it more closely approximate to the demand?
§ Mr. RUNCIMANAssuming, as I think I may, that the question is intended to refer only to certificated teachers, I must point out that it could not be answered with precision unless the Board were able to keep in touch with every teacher who has received the Board's certificate since the year 1847, when certificates were first granted. The number of teachers certificated from the year 1847 to 1st January, 1910, was 187,299. The Board's records show that there were on the staffs of public elementary schools during the year ending 31st July, 1910, 97,851 certificated teachers. The Board have investigated the records of service of each of the 187,000 teachers referred to above. Of the 90,000 not employed in public elementary schools in 1010, upwards of 4,000 are known to be in receipt of superannuation allowances, disablement allowances, or Code pensions. The Board have no means of keeping in touch with the teachers whose names do not appear on the staff sheets of public elementary schools, other than those in580W receipt of pensions. They are, therefore, unable to say how many of the 86,000 remaining to be accounted for are dead, or how many have permanently retired from the profession; but it is obvious that a great number must, if still alive, be upwards of sixty-five years of age. I am afraid it would be quite impossible to calculate the amount expended out of public funds on the training of the residue, whatever it may be. Indeed it would be extremely difficult to find out what kind of training, if any, was given in the case of a great number of them. The last part of the question refers to a matter which I have been considering very closely of late. Having regard to the supply of teachers as a whole throughout the country, I am not aware that any material disproportion can be shown to exist between supply and demand in respect of properly qualified teachers for public elementary schools.