A SCHOOL TEACHER’S QUERY.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1584, 18 March 1879, Page 4

A SCHOOL TEACHER’S QUERY.

The following letter appeared a few days ago in the “ Now Zealand Times.” As it relates to a subject of much interest at this moment, it is worth republishing : Sir, —Could you inform us on what principle the new teachers’ certificates have been issued by the Minister of Education ? I have been teaching school for a good many years in different parts of New Zealand, and have risen gradually, and after repeated and most searching examination —one of these lasted, I remember, four days, and I believe I wrote out nearly an acre of papers —from the third 1 o the second, and from the second to the firstclass of schoolmasters ; and I may mention that this last and as I supposed final certificate, which I received from the Wellington Education Board two years ago, was on parchment, with a great red seal and no end of signatures to it. Now 1 receive a letter from the Education Department, telling mo that by direction of the Minister of Education I am placed in the fourth class of teachers. This is a sort of arithmetical progression that I cannot find explained in any of the text-books recommended to mo by the late Order in Council, and the only formula that I can and at all applicable Io it aro the wellknown lines — The King of France, with twenty thousand men, Marched up the hill—and then marched down again. To complicate matters still more, I have just received notice to be ready to send in my first-class certificate to bo endorsed by the District Education Board. Can any of your readers explain the meaning of these curious vagaries of the higher powers, for I feel quite puzzled ; and when I speak to any of my neighbors they only smile, and reply in their vulgar, sinful language, “ Oh, they are making ». blooming fool of you,” or words to that effect ? I am,j&c., A Scnooi Teaoheb. P.S.—How can I attach any value to a New Zealand Education certificate when I see that it can be so easily superseded or cancelled.