TEACHERS’ PROMOTION

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 255, 22 July 1921, Page 6

TEACHERS’ PROMOTION

SYSTEM UNDER DISCUSSION REPRESENTATIONS BY THftSCHOOL COMMITTEES. A suggestion that provision should be made for a wider range of salaries within schools, in order that teachers might be able to secure promotion without changing their schools, was pieced before the Minister of Education yesterday by a deputation representing the Wellington School Committees’ Association. Under present conditions salaries are fixed within narrow limits as fnr as individual schools are concerned, and a teacher must change his position in order to gain promotion. The association suggested that this- system was not in the interests of the education system, since it involved frequent transfers of teachers. Mr. A. Sando, who had brought the matter before a meeting of the association, said that frequent transfers interfered seriously with the work of the Schools. Ho contended that it should not be necessary for a teacher to leave a school where he .was doing good work and where he had learned to understand local conditions. Promotion ought to be available within the school, and this would be possible if provision were made for a wider rango of salaries without transfer. He believed that salaries ought to be based upon efficiency, academic attainments, length of service, and domestic responsibilities. One Wellington school with a staff of twenty-one teachers had had eighteen changes in three years. In another school there had been five changes in one class in a single year. The Minister: The teachers desire promotion. Mr., Sando: Yes. but many of them would be willing to remain if they could get the promotion without the transfer. The Minister said it would not do to keep a teacher in a School ct a high, salary when that teacher might be doing better work in another position. Under the present system promotion carried increased responsibility with it. Mr. Sando said that of course there were limits to be observed. Tho association would not expect a. school to be staffed with potential headmasters. An improvement would be effected if transfers were made only at the end of a year, so that a school might not have changes of staff during the year. He believed that the uncertainty of promotion under present conditions was one reason why the Department experienced difficulty in attracting suitable men and women to the teaching profession. The Minister, in reply, said that tnfe granting of a greater range of salaries within the schools would involve a considerable increase in the cost of staffing the schools. When he said that the cost of staffing was now £1, 550.000 annually, they -would understand that having regard to tLe present financial situation it was hopeless to expect the Government to make any change involving additional cost. He believed, however, that there might bo means of minimising the inconvenience to tho individual schools arising from too frequent staff changes. The Auckland Education Board, at the time when he was a member, had decided that no teacher should be eligible for transfer within two years of appointment. This meant that a teacher served at least two years in a school. He believed that the rule was stijl in operation and that it did not involve any hardship on the teachers. He saw no reason why the Wellington Education Board should not make a similar rule. The examples that had been placed before him by the deputation did not represent s normal state of affairs, and there "had been little complaint from other districts. The Minister added that he would have the matter fully investigated. The suggestion that all transfers should be made at the end of the year was worth consideration. He would not initiate any system that would encourage a teacher to remain in a comfortable school when a better salary might induce him to taka the headmasterahip of a country school, where he could do more useful work. But he did not quite understand why there should be eight grades in the present classification ,scheme. He would make a suggestion to the Department that the number of grades should be reduced, in order that greater scope for promotion within the grades might be provided.