Facteurs déterminant le traitement de l'instituteur laïc Factors Determining the Salary of the Lay-Teacher

Sommaire

Le profession d'instituteur laïc est belle, noble et importante; tout comme celles des autres travailleurs, elle comporte également ses exigences et suscite ses problèmes, nombreux et complexes. Celui du traitement, dans la province de Québec, revêt une importance particulière. L'auteur s'y arrête et essaye de faire ressortir les facteurs déterminants de salaire minimum en se basant sur les faits, et en envisageant le rôle de l'Etat et des associations professionnelles.

Summary

A study of the salary of the lay-teacher in our Province puts us right into the heart of the school question. I would like, briefly, to emphasize some factors which appear to affect the teacher's salary and to examine on what basis this important problem should be considered in the future.

THE FACTS

In consulting the most recent statistics, we note the following facts: The number of teachers without diploma is increasing. For instance, the number of non-qualified women has increased from 1,087 to 1,561 in the whole Province, between 1951 and 1954.

We note, furthermore, that women represent 86% of all lay-teachers and that in general their turnover is very high. It has been noted that the lay-man in the teaching profession works during an average of 15.89 years whereas the lay-woman in the field gives only 3.79 years of her life to teaching. The average salary paid to lay-men in 1950-1951 was $2,791.00 whereas that of lay-women was $895.00. It would seem that the lay-man in each category receives a basic salary approximately double that of his feminine colleague.

From the statistics, we may infer that women are attracted to the profession more than men, either because it is more their vocation, that they have more normal schools at their disposition, or finally that the salary offered, even if it is ridiculously low compared to their masculine colleagues, is sufficient while they are waiting for their eventual wedding-day. In any case, women are the principal competitors of men and their willingness to teach at a lower wage has as effect both to limit the number of men in the profession and to exercise a general deflationary effect on all salaries. Furthermore, the heavy turnover among lay-women in the teaching profession prevents the average salary of the whole profession to rise. Finally, we must add the deflationary effect of the salaries paid to non-qualified teachers and also the lack of uniformity between individual and collective agreements. In 1951, out of a total of 23,862 teachers, men and women, which made up the teaching personnel in the schools under the control of the school commissions, 9,149, that is 39.4% of all the teaching personnel, consisted of teachers belonging to religious orders, receiving salaries much lower than their lay-colleagues. No wonder if the profession does not offer much attraction. The profession may present such risks of insecurity, instability and unfavourable working conditions that eventual candidates often turn aside and go to other fields of activity to find what the profession no longer seems to offer them.

UNDERLYING FACTORS

The salary of the teacher cannot be determined according to rules most adequate for industry. In determining salaries, it is necessary to take into account the cultural objectives of our school system, the nature of the school corporation as an employer, as well as the responsibilities of the Provincial Government. It is also necessary to consider the requirements of the profession itself, as well as those of the staff member, without forgetting the interests of the association which helps and protects him.

STRICT OBLIGATIONS OF THE GOVERNMENT

The Government must intervene and make up for the deficiencies of the economic system, which, if left to itself, is not able to provide for a population with enough education to meet the normal responsibilities of a citizen. In fact, education is not an article which can be traded and a school system cannot be organized rationally in accordance with the idea of profit and. productivity; in this day, we have the most important undertaking in the Province, but the one the least able to show a profit at the end of the year.

The Provincial Government has a heavy responsibility in the sphere of education and its strictest obligations will determine both the standards that it must impose all across the Province and the controls it must exercise in order to make it succeed. On the other hand, this right of supervision and control must reconcile with the right and duty of the parents to assume a direct responsibility in the education of the family.

THE SALARY AND A WELL EDUCATED CITIZEN

One of the most important functions of government, with the close cooperation of the family, the Church, and the teaching profession, is to ensure the intellectual and moral progress of the nation. Consequently, the government has the strict obligation to guarantee that the same minimum advantages that are essential to the progress of the Province, are offered to all children, regardless of where they live, and regardless of their parents' means, either taken as individuals receiving a revenue, or collectively as paying taxes to a school commission.

THE SALARY AND THE CORPORATION ABILITY TO PAY

As a rule, the basic minimum salary of the teacher must not depend on the local ability to pay. It must be such that it should ensure continually the recruiting of a competent and qualified staff of teachers, and for all levels in our primary school system, regardless of places and, we mean here, teachers able to truly carry out the tasks required by the function assigned to them.

THE REQUIRED MINIMUM

We believe that the Province should, jointly with the Professional Associations arid the Parents' Associations, propose to the School Commissions a scale of minimum salaries for the whole Province and for different categories of teachers. The Province should make certain grants, conditional to the carrying out of such conditions imposed. For the surplus, the teachers' associations could negotiate oil an appropriate basis, taking into account local conditions.

This basic minimum, on the basis of real income, should, in itself, be attractive enough to ensure a normal recruitment, if not a small surplus of competent candidates. The salary should be equal for all, men and women in the same personnel category. The hiring of a teacher, either man or woman, should depend primarily on the pedagogic requirements, such as should be enforced by a policy as uniform and rational as possible all over the Province.

PROFESSIONAL INTERESTS

It is necessary to protect the career, both against attacks from within as well as from without. First of all, protect the professional interests by facilitating teachers' associations. It is necessary to ensure each one a salary worthy of his situation as man, as a family member, as a citizen. Thus, we will have teachers who will be as anxious to give themselves a thorough training, as to teach according to the best traditions of the profession.

THE SALARY AND THE COMMON WELFARE

The minimum salary of the teacher must meet the requirements of the general welfare, the same all over the Province, without economic or geographic discrimination. Let us ensure at least, a basic minimum of real income, one that would be the average of what industry would normally pay to an employee of whom an equivalent education was required. And let us be even more generous... There would be another step to take and this would be a heavy responsibility for the professional association: that of maintaining a high standard of recruitment and to see that the maximum salaries negotiated on the local level, really reflect the merit of the teaching staff. Greater benefits to the school system and the profession would also derive from a greater staff mobility, not only within each school commission, but also through promotions across our total school system.