§ Major O'NEILLasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether a grant of £10 per annum in lieu of local aid is made to head teachers of Irish model schools who were appointed after 31st March, 1900; whether this grant was made on the ground that such teachers appointed before the date mentioned had received a special supplemental salary which was continued to them only as included in the subsequent salaries calculated on the basis of the three years ending 31st March, 1900, whether in most cases even the inclusion of this suplemental salary failed to raise the average salary to the maximum grade; whether it is thus possible for a head teacher appointed after 31st March, 1900, to obtain the maximum grade in addition to the local aid grant, whereas a head teacher appointed before that date can only obtain the maximum grade salary without the grant; whether consequently there are any such teachers who would actually be receiving better remuneration if they had been appointed at a later date than they were appointed; and, if so, will he take steps to have this position rectified?
§ Mr. MACPHERSONThe Commissioners of National Education inform me that up to the year 1905 a system had been in operation for many years whereby £2,000 of the fees collected in model schools were appropriated in aid of the Parliamentary Vote for National Education. The residue of the fees, if any such existed, was distributable among the teachers of the model schools; but for some years prior to 1905, as the total amount of fees collected fell short of £2,000, the teachers received no share whatever of these school fees. In the year 1905 the Treasury agreed to forgo their claim to any share of these school fees in consideration of the fact that model school teachers appointed since 1st April, 1900, laboured under disadvantages, as regards emoluments, not only in comparison with model school teachers appointed prior to that date, but also in comparison with teachers of ordinary national schools, and they agreed to a scheme for the distribution of the fees2228W amongst the teachers of model schools which provided, inter alia, that each principal teacher of a model school appointed in that capacity since 31st March, 1900, should receive £10 per annum to stand in the place of local aid. By subsequent Regulations, approved by the Treasury, principal teachers of model schools appointed since 31st December, 1917, do not share in this grant.
Principal teachers appointed to model schools before 1st April, 1900, were entitled to special salaries which were in excess of those available up to that time for the principal teachers of ordinary schools, and it was in consideration of this circumstance and of the fact that the privilege in question was withdrawn from principal teachers appointed to the model schools on and after 1st April, 1900, that the model school principal teachers who held office as such before the latter date were excluded from the benefit of the payment out of the school fees of £10 per annum for local aid. It is a fact that a large number of model school principal teachers were not placed in the highest grade of teachers as a result of the consolidation of salaries which was effected in 1900, even although the consolidation was on the basis of the special salaries which they had been in receipt of up to that date. It is also a fact that it is possible for a head teacher appointed between 1st April, 1900, and 31st December, 1917, to obtain the highest grade salary in addition to the grant of £10 in lieu of local aid, whereas a head teacher appointed prior to 1st April, 1900, can obtain only the maximum salary of the highest grade. As against this it is to be noted that the latter class of teachers were in receipt of much higher salaries in the earlier years of their career than was the case with the former. The Commissioners are unable to say, without further investigation, whether there is at present any case in which a principal teacher of a model school appointed prior to 1st April, 1900, is actually receiving less salary than he would be receiving if he had been appointed as such after that date.