"A PREMIUM UPON INCOMPETENCE."

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1301, 2 December 1911, Page 6

"A PREMIUM UPON INCOMPETENCE."

I AUK TEACH Jilts TOO RIGIDLY SAFE fJUAKDKD? "I am disposed to think iliat th« J<rf!;f-nt nystem of tenure is putting a premium upon incompetence iu the teaching profession," remarked Mr. Wm. , "J/ principal of the Teachers' Training College, in )|j s valedictory address to the (students at (ho breaking-up ceromony yesterday morning. While, ho conjin nod, he did not suggest that (lie privileges of, and protection of, the Teachers' .unit, of Appeal should he whittled down in any way. In, ,]j,] tf,ink that the period el appointment fihould he limited. At present, immorality, or hopeless incompetence, were, practically speaking, th« only grounds upon which a teacher could wo removed from his appointment. His interests were so securely protected in other rcspoeU that his position, as rejiardH tennre, was a sinecure. lio thought that tho public was entitled to a larger measure of protection than it could bo certain of tinder'existing conditions. For himself, ho would suggest that tho period of appointment should ho limited; and efficiency be a periodical (est of reap, pointrrient, J here should, also, bo in tho ranks of tho framing College student* a periodic and eysUmatic sifting and sortnijj out, and a Kyfitcm of grading capac! y, i A . 'I" 1 not wish H to he onderstood that he was assailing the general efficiency of tho whole body of teachcru— ■V.w Zealand, ho believed, was well served by its teachers—but, as he had said bofore, thero f-hould l>e no encouragement, in the nature of absolnto security of ,m nurc ' , lor slac);n ws to manifest itself, there should bo a permanent inccntiv* to aim high all tho time,