§ Sir R. NEWMANasked the President of the Board of Education whether his attention has been called to the action of certain local education authorities who have placed teachers, on reaching the age of 55, at the maximum of their scales, in order that they may secure higher pensions on retirement at the age of 60; and whether this practice has received his sanction?
Mr. LEWISMy attention has been called to one or two cases of this kind. The Board have no desire to interfere with the responsible exercise by local education authorities of a reasonable discretion as regards special augmentations of salary in special cases, regard being had to special qualifications or special responsibilities; but it appears to the Board that the undiscriminating augmentation of teachers' salaries ten years before the date of obligatory retirement for the express purpose of augmenting their superannuation allowances, gratuities, or disablement allowances, is decidedly open to objection. If the system of standard scales recommended by Lord Burnham's Committee becomes operative, the objections to such a variation of the system will, I think, be even stronger.