GRADING SCHOOL TEACHERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 April 1919, Page 7

GRADING SCHOOL TEACHERS.

SENIOR INSPECTOR'S EXPLANATION, The questioh of the method of grading school teachers "was raised at yesterday's meeting of the Education Board by Mr. S. G. Smith, when the matter of filling the vacancy at the West End school was tinder consideration. Mr. A. Morton, senior inspector, said it was known that in malcing appointments the board was not required by regulations to be bound by the grading list. On the general aspect of the question, the work of maintaining uniformity in the grading was carried out by the Assistant-Director of Education, who works out the averages of the different districts. If on coming to a. district he finds that in some cases the average is too high or too low in comparison with the general average, he instructs the inspector to lower or raise the marks in that particular district .Mr Morton added that while tile markings in Taranaki had on some very few occasions been altered in that way, for the most part they gave complete satisfaction to headquarters. The Assistant-Director took particular note of the markings of teachers who moved from one district to another, and the grading in one district was carefully compared with that in other districts, so that a fair average of marking was maintained.

In addition to the care in the grading, there was also a safeguard to the teachers of the Appeal Board. When a teacher appealed against his position on the graded list, the Department always asked a teacher to state any teacher whom they thought was graded higher than should be, or whom the appellant thought he or she should be above, or whose markings were not in proper relation to their own.

With regard to the grading in l'aranaki, Mr. Morton stated that it was not a question of the opinion of the senior inspector. All the inspectors met and determined the grading of teachers. There had never been any necessity for a division in coming to a conclusion, and the senior inspector had never voted. He thought that showed satisfaction on the part of the teachers, and especially the teachers' representatives on the Appeal Board. The fact was that, in the main, the grading was the same all over the Dominion, and he thought it was a satisfactory system. He admitted that better success had attended the scheme than he had anticipated when it was initiated.