GRADING OF TEACHERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 May 1916, Page 4

GRADING OF TEACHERS.

For some years past there has been a persistent demand by the primary s:hool teachers for the institution of a grading scheme applicable to the whole Dominion, and this agitation has now L\i>nc fruit, the regulations for this scheme having been gazetted. The new departure lias been facilitated by reason of the School Inspectors being now centralised and therefore able to form a kind of Board. Under the new regulations relating to the grading of teachers the inspectors will act as a body, meeting annually for the particular purpose of grading the certificated ttachers undir the Education Boards. The process appears to be a model of si mplicity, consisting of allocating marks for skill in teaching, personality and i discipline, organisation and management, environment ('the condition of the school and its surroundings, as well as evidence of the teacher's value as a useful factor in the life of the community), academic attainments, and service. ' It is epiite likely that the scale of marks under these heads may not meet with general approval, but it is satisfactory to lioye that the maximum for skill in teaching is set down at forty out of the aggregate of one hundred for all the heads. It is also pleasing to note that the maximum for academic attainments is 110 higher than fifteen, and it is possible that the scheme would have been all the better if these marks iad been limited to ten, the other five bing added to the marks for skill in teaching. It by no means follows that those who have earned high academical honors are the best fitted for imparting knowledge; in fact, the reverse is not infrequently the ease, for there are at the present t'ime head teachers in some of onr largest primary schools who have gained no academic distinction, and yet are amongst the most expert and successful teachers in the Dominion. Academic distinctions are the accepted hall mark of scholarship, but the art of acquiring them is vastly different from

that required to enablf [lie holders to ground their pupils frr ibtaining a like success. The grading whcme is apparently to operate in .vo ways—the promotion of deaov'xw teachers, and lowering the statu? r' iusc who have mistaken their vocal l> n The comparative value of the i>' '' icon in the

the table ii oilier column

.of this issue), and it embraces all classes of teachers from the very good to the very weak. No Dominion grading scheme would be of real value unless it cuts both ways, and as the teachers are given the right of appeal if they are dissatisfied with the result of the grading the scheme as a whole should commend itself to the teachers. The grading work of the inspectors is to bo (submitted to the Minister of Education, who has some exceedingly commonsense views on educational matters, and may b» relied upon to make the welfare of tl'.e children the first consideration. The time has arrived when there should be a radical alteration in the present educational system if we are to profit by the lessons of the war, and be ready to meet the demands of the future, so that any scheme which will act as a stimulus to thoroughly efficient teaching, having for its object the application oi study to the important affairs of national life, should be welcomed by the community, and there should be no grudging of adequate financial aid in the prosecution of the most important of all the duties undertaken by the State.