iod between leaving school and getting married, without
qualifying even for what ought to be regarded as the lowest ranks of
the profession. This fact is at once realised, when one contrasts the
percentage of women teachers who are untrained, viz., 54 per cent, in
England, 49 per cent, in Wales, with the corresponding figures for men
teachers, viz., 30 per cent, in England and 29 per cent, in Wales.

Every candidate for teachership, who has passed through a Training
College, is required by the Board of Education to serve in a
recognised school--a woman for five out of the first eight years after
leaving College; a man for seven out of the first ten years after
leaving College--or pay the whole or part of the Government grant
in respect of College training. But, notwithstanding this agreement,
enforceable under Act of Parliament,[5] the Board of Education neither
takes steps to find employment for such candidates in the State
schools of the country, nor admits any responsibility on its part for
the conditions under which teachers are employed. By the Education Act
of 1902, local authorities, of which there are 318, were made
chiefly responsible for the work of education, and it is these local
authorities who lay down the conditions of appointment.

This refusal by the Board of Education of responsibility for
appointments and conditions of appointment to teaching posts, leaves
it for local authorities to fix scales of salaries, and to decide such
questions as, for example, whether married women teachers shall be
employed. The grave effect of this state of things on the economic
interests of the teachers of the country cannot be too much
emphasised, having regard to the fact that local authorities are
bodies composed mainly of men elected on a rate-saving principle.

The salaries paid to bursars and student teachers are insufficient
to cover charges for maintenance, clothes, books, etc. Speaking
generally, a quite substantial sum must also be found during each
year of the collegiate course, for college expenses and for board
and lodging during vacations, so that a candidate's parents must hold
themselves financially responsible for her during the various
stages of her training, except in so far as the cost is covered by
scholarship and maintenance grants. Women candidates are in this
respect far worse off than their male colleagues, as, at every stage
of their training, they receive a smaller maintenance grant. At a
res