APPOINTMENT OF HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS

Chronicle (Levin), 17 May 1947, Page 6

APPOINTMENT OF HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS

-Press ... Association

By Telegraph—

WELLINGTON, May 16. Whether. secondary 'school teachers want a Central Appointments Board s.et up by the Government- is- to be asked of them in a postal ballot conducted in the next year. .This was decided yes terday at the final- session of the(annual conference in Wellington of the .New Zealand Secondary Schools' Association. I ■ ' It' is proposed- that thd board' should' be responsible f.or the -appointing of iili principals, heads of department and special positions, with - all-' other appointments to be mad^' as ''at present. The decisiom arose fronf .a remit to the conference' from* '^he/'Htitt Yalley High School and Netv' Plymoath Boys/ High School branqhes. The, present system of ; appoihtine.nl by school boards laid • itself o'pe'n to lobbying victiinisation and' favQuritism, .said Mr. R. H, M.cKenzie, Hut'fc'- Valley High School, openihg the discussion. Men who had no prpper qualifications to. judge teachers were . making the ap pointments. A .Central Appointments Board would comprise men of high educational standards imbued with the proper spirit of the profession, who would know what to look for in teachers. Many speakers spoke in oppositioji to Mr. McKenzie. The present system of appointment by boards of governors. was defended and the remit was con demned as an attempt to bring about an undesirable centralisation that would kill local interest in education, withoul necessarily correcting any weaknesses in the present system of appointing teachers. In making the decision to liold a postal ballot on the question, the con ferenc-e decided that the suggested composition of the board should be: One representative of the Department of Education, one of the board of governors concerned with the appointment (this to be the principal when the posi-

tion is.a special one or for a head of a department) ahd a representative of the post-primary teachers.