§ Mr. MORRELLasked the President of the Board of Education whether his attention has been called to the fact that the salaries offered to teachers in many elementary schools in rural areas are quite inadequate to provide for the reasonable necessities of life, in view of the increase in the cost of living; whether he is aware that many teachers in village schools in Oxfordshire are in receipt of salaries amounting to less than 25s. a week, and that when a vacancy occurs in the teaching staff the school managers have difficulty in obtaining anyone to fill it; and whether he will take steps, by legislation or otherwise, to secure that local education authorities shall pay adequate salaries?
§ Mr. HERBERT FISHERIn their Minute of 14th February, 1918, the Board of Education prescribed certain minimum rates for the salaries of qualified (certificated and uncertificated) teachers, and none of these teachers are now in receipt of salaries less than 25s. a week. The Board have not seen their way to prescribe minimum salaries for supplementary teachers whose recognition is purely temporary and limited. It is, however, of course, my view that no local education authority or other employer should pay any employés less than a living wage. The question of the adequacy of the 1309W salaries paid in Oxfordshire and in other areas for the purpose of Articles 3 and 4 of the Supplementary Grant Regulations will receive careful scrutiny, and I can assure the hon. Member that I am very fully alive to the importance of the matter.