SPEAKING OUT

Educational needs were very pressing in P.E.l. during those years when parents and teachers were forming a provincial federation in an effort to better the school system. Many changes and improve- ments have come about in the past two decades, but major changes do not occur overnight.

The strength of Home and School lies not so much in what we can accomplish by ourselves, but in what it is possible to persuade others to do — to convince people in authority to take certain actions.

Home and School has presented briefs to government asking for improved educational facilities and better opportunities for all Island children. A resumé of those briefs will show the broad spectrum of Home and School concern, and indicate how a concerted voice can, in fact, influence change.

REQUEST FOR A ROYAL COMMISSION - 1955

That brief requested the appointment of a Royal Commis- sion to investigate and inquire into all matters pertaining to the public school education of the children and youth of this province. The preamble stated that the Home and School mem» bers ”view with alarm" the situation of many public schools being staffed with teachers inadequately trained, and it cited as one of the major causes of the lack of sufficient trained teachers ”the low salaries paid to teachers."

The specific items which the brief requested a Royal Commission to investigate and report upon were:

I. the training and recruitment of teachers,

2. the classification of teachers' licenses,

3. the minimum salary requirement to induce trained and qualified teachers to remain in the teaching profession,

4. the tax-paying ability of the province in relation to matters pertaining to public school education,

5. the advantages, financial and otherwise, of enlarged school administration units,

6. the need for and the method of subsidizing the less wealthy districts and areas to enable them to provide their

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