INEFFICIENT TEACHERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 90, 16 April 1913, Page 5

INEFFICIENT TEACHERS.

■ ■ _. . — A PROPOSAL FOR TRAINING. IN OBSERVATION SCHOOLS. The Auckland school inspectors have put forward tentatively a suggestion by acting upon which the Board could cope fairly effectively with the ever-present problem of the inefficient teacher. Briefly stated, their proposal- is to establish "observation schools" of a useful type, where inexperienced teachers might learn from example what could scarcely be learned from precept in a reasonable period of time. The inspectors, in their annual report to the Board, thus refer to the matter:.— " In this, as in other educational districts throughout the Dominion, there are unfortunately a considerable number of uncertificated teachers, some of whom are practically without experience and, hence, are incapable of discharging efficiently the important duties of their profession. Many of them are without knowledge of the standard of attainment and effort reached by the best schools, and so are unable to realise their own limitations. Most of them, moreover, are so far removed from centres where the more efficient schools are in operation that it would be both costly and inconvenient to require them to make use of such schools for purposes of observation. It is from a visit to. the small sole-charge school that they would dej rive most benefit: but this type of school, owing to its isolation and the small salary it carries, does not, as a rule, attract the kind of teacher likely to act as a model and an inspiration to the inexnerienced. A few small schools scattered about the district in conveni-1 ent centres, and staffed by speciallysclected and highly efficient teachers, wou\i afford the facilities required. To these ' observation schools' the most I promising amongst the inexperienced teachers .could, from time to time, be I sent, much to tb_j advantage of tbemj selves, and the community omongst j whom they are to work. The teachers Jin charge would reouire to be snecially efneient. so -that their schools and methI ods might be regarded as models, and j any detriment to the pupils' progress | caused by the presence of visiting tcachj crs, minimised. To secure the tyne of j teacher needed for this work, it would be necessary to provide salaries considerably higher than present scale conditions allow. Half a. dozen such schools in , suitable localities would be of very great assistance to the authorities here in their efforts to improve the status and efficiency of inexperienced teachers.