EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTE.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16724, 6 January 1920, Page 5

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTE.

• annual contesence. (mKSS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) "WELLINGTON, January o. At tho annual confcrenco of tho New Zealand Educational Institute, Miss Butler, and Messrs Wells, Tibbs. McInncs. Munro, and Land wero_ appointed to consider some modification of or substitution lor tho system of proficicncy certificates, as a test of promotion "to secondary education, also the co-ordination of tho curricula in tho primary and socondary schools, and tho continued education of tho ooun.try children Dr. Eleanor Baker, Misg Chapman,' Professor Hight. Messrs Purchase, lVnlington, and Aschman were, appointed to report on retardation and backwardness in primary schools. Ono d«logate said that not 6U per cont. of tho children who passed tho first standard rcached tho sixth standard. A resolution was passed that tlio spaco allotment and grading of & school should bo based not on tho average attendanco, but on tho averago rmi. liio committee set up to report on tho remits having reference to grading placed before the conference a series of resolutions designed to provido a baais of discussion. At tho conclusion of the discussion, tho confcrenco passed the following resolutions: — A teacher's grading should depend upon officicncy, in tho assessment of : which tho following factors should be taken into consideration: —(a) Teaming ability; (b) personality and discipline; 1 (c) organisation and management; (d) | school environment; (o) academic at- ! tainment and three years of efficient ! service. . . The system is inequitable so long as ' deserving teachers are debarred from opportunities of proving their efficiency in higher positions, nsd thereby improving their status. | The present system of allotting cmI'ciency marks under special definite i headings should bo retained, and teachers should bo considered ebgihle for lo marks for organisation and management. To enable teachers to make a proper comparison of the grading of teachers in tho different education districts, the marks and service of all teachers should bo in tho graded list. . ! As no system of promotion based on 1 tine gradiiig schcmo with its present anomalies will over gain tho oonfidenco of tho toachors of Kcw Zealand, institute is strongly of opinion that ; immediate steps should be taken to establish uniformity of appraisement w "Tading as between district and district. Tho Institute therefore wel--1 comcs tho * assuranco of tho assistant- ' director that a conference of senior 1 inspectors is to be held forthwith, but i is of opinion that all grading officers 1 should bo called to that conference. ! The conferenco endorses tho ecntiI mont expressed in tho final words of tho I committee's report, which were as fol--1 lows: —"Your commitee thinks tho Institute should place it on record that it is still unanimously in favour of a grading and promotion scheme equitably applicable to the whole Dominion, iiud that in making these recommendations ' it '3 actuated solely by tho desire to improve the present system by the re- ' moval of some of tho faults revealed, as i they only could be revealed, by exponI ence. > . -