SELECTION OF HEAD TEACHER.

Kumara Times, Issue 1554, 20 September 1881, Page 2

SELECTION OF HEAD TEACHER.

[TO ffis EDITOR.]

Slit—ln your issue of the 30th ult.j a correspondent has been good enough to desire information respecting the mode of procedure of the School Committee in recently selecting a head teacher for the Kumara State School* and to ascertain, through, you, if the motion made for my appointment failed to find a seconder because of my being “ a Catholic.” You have gone somewhat out of yoni way in enlightening your correspondent by stating that “ the Local Schpdl Committee were guided purely by the certificates of merit each applicant sent in, and which, in the case of Messrs Just and Woodward, were itnmeasurably superior to those of Mr M'Carthy ” “ who holds no Certificate whatever under the New Zealand Education Act: 1877;” ■

The statement that Mr Just’s certificates ami testimonials were “immeasurably superior” to mine, I as a Wild and mendacious assertion, and a libel upon my professional reputation. Let the public hear my version, and I am satisfied that every man in the community will condemn the author of such glaringly unjust criticism. Mr Just, like myself; hails from Victoria, in which colony hd held the appointment of teacher in a rural school called Bererabobe(No. 1017), with an avehtge attendance of 35, Hd was appointed to this school in 1870, and held it up to his leaving* for New Zealand in 1870. He is credited in the official records with holding a “ license to teach ” —which simply means a bard recognition of a teacher’s capacity to impart instruction in the elementary subjects. This fully sets out Mr Just’d status in the profession, and also proves that the .Education Department did not consider him entitled to promotion when he was permitted to waste his latent talents in the ultramontane seclusion of Beremboke for, a period of nine years. In my own case my. connection with the profession of Victoria was of a widely different character. Having passed through a course of training, I commenced with a secondclass certificate in July, 1866, in a school of / 5-100, with one assistant and one pupil teacher. I was promoted to Sandhurst (No. 594) in 1870 (average 300), with three assistants and four pupil teachers. In 1872 I was further promoted to Timor, near Maryborough (average 400), four assistants and five pupil teachers. * In 1874 I obtained, by a searching examination,the first-class certificate of competency,* entitling me to assume the management, of a school of 1000 3 while Mr Just’s classification only entitled him to manage a school under 75. A license does not even qualify a teacher to instruct and train pupil teachers. 1 It was a matter of notoriety that my school in Maryborough, with 800 pupils on the roll, was one of the most successful schools in the colony at the Inspec.tbis’ examinations j the percentage of results gained was among the highest: and this being the principal standard of gauging the ability and success of a teacher, I stood in the front rank of the best teachers in the colony. ■ I trained and instructed several outside candidates for the qualification held by Mr Just in 1876, in which year I left the colony. I passed 14 boys for the Matriculation Examination within a

period of ten years. Prior to my leaving Ireland I took three prize exhibitions in the Queen's College, Cork, in January 1865, where I had spent three years. With regard to my holding no certificate under the New Zealand Act, .187 t, I am afraid that in this too you have not expressed generous sentiments, as, in adopting the suppress!© veri and the suggestio falai, the only conclusion the public cotild arrive at is that having no New Zealand qualification, I can have none at all, and that therefore I Vnust he a bold adventurer. I hold no New Zealand classification simply because I ain not an officer employed under the Act ; but were Iso employed, bay equivalent classification would be Dl. I make no allusion to Mr Woodward, as I am unacquainted with his antecedent career; hut while believing that he ha‘s enjoyed the reputation of a ‘competent instructor, I claim to rank Co-ordinately with him in professional status and literary attainments.—Yours truly, .. •• - , • • C. C. M‘Cabshy, Greymouth, Sept. 1, 1881.