TEACHERS' GRADING

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 23, 22 October 1920, Page 3

TEACHERS' GRADING

MR. FORSYTH AND THE

BALLOTS

THE MINISTER REPLIES

"HAPHAZARD SYSTEM OP' PROMOTION "

The attention of the Minister of Edii: cation, 'tie Hon. C J. Pnrr, was drawn to a report headed "A Secret Ballot," which appeared in Tip; Dominion yester* day, containing statements made atjhe nieeting of the Wellington Education Board on Wednesday last. I am glad, sail Mr. l'nrr, that thi> Wellington Education Board yesterday dccl'r.ed to follow its chairman, Jlr. I'on.yth. The "board members adopted tho right attitude ALone among all the education boards Mr. Forsyth never misses an opoprtunily of misrepresenting tho Education Department aiid myself, Here ts a sample of his tactics. Yesterday Mr. Forsyth said: "Tho Minister had tnkon a Ixillot among fho whole of tho teachers in New Zealand on the question of a Domlnioi grading scheme," and further tliat only a small propoition of teachers voted because by signInsj tlieir names t!rey wouW "thus disclose their individual nttitudo to the Department." Now this statement is quite wrong, and I fear Mr. Forsyth's reply to an interjection made by Mr. Grundy at the board meeting shows that Mr. Forsyth himself knew it was wrong As a matter of fact, I have'taken no ballot '.vhafevor. The ballot was taken by the teachers themselves through their reprenentative'body, the-New Zealand Educational Institute. That the voting paper should be 6igned was determined entirely by the institute without any reference to myself. The Department has not Ken the voting papers, and does not know how a single teacher voted. I believe, however,' that it was owing to the somewhat ineffective way in which the institute prepared for Hrf ballot that a larger poll than 1200 was not secured. But Mr Forsyth cannot get away from the fact that the voting for a Dominion grading 6chome by a representative ballot with the issue fairly stated showed that 73 per cent, of the teachers voting wew in favoiir of the proposal. Why does Mr. Forsyth descend to this unwoi-hj sort of criticism? Obviously, in order to excuse by ft tu quoque argument the unfairness 'of his own ballot which his beard took on the same subject. The Department has convincing evHenoa of the misleading and unreliable poll taken by Mr. Forsytli and his officials, rlie Minister then quoted from fl letter received from a very prominent teaoher in another district, where the form of bollot paper of the Wellington Board had been copied arid used by tho local board. This teacher says: "The.voting paper was very misleading, it was a copy of the paper sent out by tho Wellington Board . . . Our members protested against' this obscuring of the issue. We are in favour of the graded list being taken if all boards do the sumo, but ii ou" board takes the highest'on the list, possibly an outsider, while other boards will not take us, then naturally we prefer the present system The real issue is Dominion promotion for the whole oi the boards, and on that we nre_ practically unanimous, and that is j\ißt the question avoided by the Wellington Board." That this teacher is correct is shown by the-fact that ill the district now referred to a ballot, taken by the Teachers' Institute showed 91 teachers for the Dominion grading scheme and only 8 against it, whereas through the use of the misleading paper framed by 3U. Forsyth, 77 voted for and i 3 against the same proposal. , The total number of voles is approximately the same in each ballot. The difference o 8 against in the one and 13 in the other case proves the tcacher's statement that the boards paper was misleading and unfair.c A further convincing proof is given 'by the result of the ballot taken by the Otago Board. Through the use of thef Wellington Board's misleading voting paper, the voting was 165 for Dominion grading scheme and 276 against, whereas as a result of the ballot taken by the Teachers' Institute, 57 per cent, voted in favour of the Dominion, grading scheme. As a matter of fact tbds unfair voting paper iramtd by the Wellington Board and used in Otago and Taranaki really excluded any possibility of voting for qppointments under the Dominion grading scheme- Teachers had to vote -without any assurance or any indication on tho ballot paper that the present watertight policy was to be broken down, and that • they would be at liberty to apply for positions ail over New Zealand. Further, in answer to my civil request that his board shall say plainly whether it intends to follow the gjading list in its appointments, and for information as to how many cases there are in which it lias departed from the grading list, Mr Forsyth throws out a smoke screen and talks about the Department having supplied him on another matter with a "veritable Chinese puzzle of figures." Any intelligent clerk in the Wellington Board's offie.; can soive in half an hour this so-called puzzle. As I cannot afford tu let Mr. Forsyth make further troublo 'between the iboard and- myself, I propose to ask for an opportunity, as soon as the session is over, of maeting the board personally, when I shall be pleased to explain the very simple matter wlihh .perplexes the. chairman. I am sure that 'He board, when I put the facts before ifj will realise the grave injustice to the teaching profession of the pM6ent haphazard system of promotion.