APPOINTMENT OF TEACHERS.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 March 1925, Page 4

APPOINTMENT OF TEACHERS.

3 1 INIST EI i lAI I CIUTIC ISM. At the? last meeting of the Camelry Education Hoard the Appomt?nts Committee reported on criticisms tiie. Ji-iard s r?c'iiii:iie:’.datio:i for seme jdilierioi. of die- existing scheme ol aking appointments of teachers. The inmittee’s report stated that in aerdance with directions it had eonsided certain reported .Ministerial stateents that had lately appeared in the ihlic Press with regard to tin- Canrbnry Education Hoard's suggested nendments in the scheme of making ipoiiitinents of teachers. In the itir.se of his remarks, reported to have ;cn made recently hy the Minister of dtieafion to a conference of grading fleers, the Minister stated that “ the auterhury Hoard proposed that intend of the highest graded applicant meivihg an appointment, applicants ichiii live marks, should he considered -hut within a range of live marks, here might he as many as sixty teaeh!S. ” The committee considered that such misleading statement should not ass unchallenged. A reader lacking aerial knowledge would naturally lie 1 lisled to the conclusion that the pal'd desired to make its selection ■om as many as sixty applicants of arcing qualifications and merit. In lie most extreme ease there could nol c more than live such applicants, selcled from live groups of say, twelve ach, in which groups according to the ,-ading officers, all teachers are equal '■itliin 1-203 of a mark. The proposed election would therefore he made not i-oin sixty, hut from live applicants chose qualifications are as nearly as ijiiv he equal, and such selection would )C ‘made hy the Hoard with the concur•enee of the Senior Inspector. The loird in a memorandum to the Minster in January, 1512.% asked that, in he interests of education with the con•urronce of the Department's officer the Senior Inspector) provided that such candidate were -suitable every way dtlioiigh graded within a limit of live mark s helow the teacher standing hiigliosi on tlio list of applicants he lvd'dit I"? apoointed. The Hoard made this suggestion solely in the intoiests ~f cducai'ioii, since it is beyond human still in assess in figures the difference i n die oualilications of that indefinable human 'characteristic called individual personality. Sometimes the success or failure of a teacher to receive a particular appointment rests on the absence of one mark. The committee deemed it an /m possibility that upwards of lort.v inspectors. men of varying judgment of opposed educational ideals and standards on-ratin''' in nine educational districts were a'de to classify GOOD teachers into upwards of 200 grades with the exact limit of one mark. Kelerring to the New Zealand grading scheme which up-, .poured recently in the Educational Supplement of the " London Times'’ a critic savs: "None hut a god or a godinspired'prophet could do justice Within the scheme. The Hoard tlierelore urged on the Department that consideration and relief he given in mili.gating the mechanical operation of the grading scheme as an appointments scheme hy allowing:—(a) greater ireoiii.ni in making appointments within a limit of five marks; <l>) hy making hover grades, thus allowing a reasonable 1 power of selection, so that in all cases the applicant considered most suitable i fur a particular or any position mi l'll he secured.

p mrd in asking this, recognised it . plain duty. This duty was clearly st.-.icil in a judgment recently dr-liver- (,,| | IV Mr Justice I losking dealing with the appointment ol teaclieis as hd lows:— That the Hoard in making appointments of ianchors should have rc,,l to the promotion ol education, and as incidental thereto should ka.c regard to the suitability of teaches for ihc jm. it ion to which they arc ap

pointed cannot, m my opmion. he gam said; for unless such cimsiilcrations arc acted upon, education instead of Peine promoted will lapse into in-

oilicionr *\v* jn the pajirnpli <?l his statement the Minister addressed the grading ohkorx present as billows: •■The Department’s ofiicers and yourselves are charged with the most inv portant task Hull any body of men can undertake in a modern democracy, ami 1 rejoice that in this body New Zealand nos-.esses a hand of men who in culture, experience and conscientiousness arc probably unsurpassed in aa v iiart of the Empire.”

This apotheosis, however, did not take cognisance of the impossibility or otherwise of the task imposed on them, ami with the Minister the Hoard fully realised the gravity of the task and accepted Mr Justice Iloskiug's pronouncement that " the appointment of teachers is the very essence of the educational legislation in question, the object of which according to the title ol the principal Act is to make bc-ltci provision for the education ol the people.” The committee submitted that (he Hoard in respectfully making a suggestion to remove what it console!0,l defects in the grading scheme was simply and honestly trying to cans out its plain duty, so defined. hut

regretted that iis endeavour had been misconstrued.

Air H. C‘. L:uio wrote to the chairman of the Hoard setting forth observations lie bad gathered while m England. He stated That the county councils corresponded with the Education Hoard in New Zealand. There was no grading of teachers such as existed in Nun Zealand, although the (eacliors considered “excellent” and “ very good ” wore placed in separate groups; and this partial grading was no doubt a guide to the councils when selecting applicants.