The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 1933. THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 102, 3 May 1933, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 1933. THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT.

For th« cause that laclca assistance, for the wrong that needs Tzsistanct t For the future in the distance, the good that irs can do.

The appointment of a new Director of Education, and the Minister's decision, to create a new administrative office in the Department, raise important questions. The new Director of Education, Mr. N. T. Lambourne, has had a successful and varied career in the Department's service; lie has been a headmaster, vice-principal of a Training College, and an inspector, and it may be said that if anybody high up among inspectors deserves this promotion, ho does. The question has been asked of late, however, •whether it is wise to reserve this post, the ■highest in the professional branch of the service, for departmental o&cers, and whether it would not be better in the interests of the whole educational, system to throw it open to wide competition. One might lind the opinion pretty widely held that it would be good for the system if a door was opened on to the outside world and a fresh wind allowed to blow into what is considered to be the somewhat stale atmosphere of the Department, in the shape of a director of high attainments who had not been moulded in the departmental pattern. New Zealand is an isolated community liable to the sin of self-satisfaction, and the Education Department, which above all State agencies is responsible for correcting that attitude, should take care to recruit strength now and then from the larger world. The Government, however, seems resolved that Directors of Education shall be appointed from within the Department. It can call upon men with excellent records, but as a class they are men who have been trained along departmental lines, and in most .cases will take the traditional departmental view. Something wider than this is required in the most important educational post in the Dominion. Indeed, it has been suggested by a Southern paper that there is that in the departmental or Civil Service regulations which virtually forbids the appointment of an outsider to the position. If this is so, it is a serious matter. It would be interesting to hear what the Minister has to say on this point, and he might also tell us what ideas he and his colleagues have on tho question of departmental promotion versus appointment from outside. In looking for an officer to fill the new administrative post in the Department, the Minister will, if necessary, go beyond the Department, and even the Civil Service, which will form an interesting precedent. The idea is to place beside the Director an officer who will take business as distinct from academic matters off the Director's hands, and if the right man is appointed this should make for economy. The Director is the permanent head of a Department that not only looks after the education of the nation but spends millions of money, but if the Director is a teacher by training, his experience is not such as to fit him particularly well for getting the best value out of expenditure. The question arises whether the head of the Department should be a professional educationist. The National Expenditure Commission recommended that as a general rule heads of departments should not be professional men, but should be chosen for their administrative ability. • In England, where the Civil Service is the best in the world, the permanent head of the Education Department is not a teacher, but a departmental civil servant with a university education, and he receives double tho salary of the highest paid professional official under.him. The Government has given no indication of its views on this recommendation of the Commission, but the matter is so important that it cannot be permanently shelved.