TEACHERS' GRADING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 235, 4 October 1937, Page 11

TEACHERS' GRADING.

INJUSTICE OF SCHEME FORMER OFFICER'S COMMENTS. The teachers' grading system is under criticism, which gains force as the defects become more apparent with age, states an ex-grading officer in "National Education," official organ of the New Zealand Educational Institute.

The time is ripe for a searching investigation into the working of the scheme from the points of view, not only of justice to teachers, but also of its influence on education; for while it might be claimed that it gives a measure of justice to the former, it does not follow that it is equally successful with the latter. If, indeed, teachers receive justice in promotion at the expense of the ideals of education, they are in a very delicate position from which it would be advisable to withdraw. The grading scheme as it stands does insufficient justice both to the teacher and to the child, and particularly to the latter. The scheme, however, must justify itself in the position it occupies in the education system as a whole, and not on the grounds solely that it has removed certain a/buses in the promotion of teachers. Its chief fault is that for teacher and inspector it has, consciously or unconsciously, taken the centre of the stage. I doubt that a teacher could be a genuine educationist who from youth is led to measure success by annual, increments of grading.

Every grading officer knows that he is continually prevented by the nature of the scheme or by the rules of applying it, from placing teachers in their correct relative positions, supposing his knowledge of them is correct. Injustice on this account is greater than teachers are aware, and there is no appeal. Teachers may accept with patience errors in human judgment, or rectify them in Appeal Courts, but should not resign themselves helplessly to a very imperfect system which in its inflexibility imposes serious limitations on the action of the grading officer.

My reason for urging a reform is chiefly this: All teachers, gifted or otherwise, high or low in the grading scheme, can find complete satisfaction only as they realise in practice to the fullest extent of their capacity the things they think worth while in education. They will enjoy the satisfaction of creative work only when they have built up a philosophy of education on which to base their teaching practice and thereby to measure their own success.

The present grading scheme looms too large; education tends to become a mercenary business, not a vocation