PUBLIC SERVICE TESTS

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23080, 24 July 1940, Page 8

PUBLIC SERVICE TESTS

“RESULTS TELL OWN

STORY”

COMMISSIONER’S REPORT

The claim that inquiries have failed to elicit any evidence of support among public servants for the opposition of the Public Service Association to the institution of efficiency tests is made in the annual report of the Public Service Commissioner, Mr T. Mark. “Apart from the fact that the organisation says so,” says the commissioner, “wide inquiry both by the commissioner personally and by his senior officers has failed to elicit’ any evidence that would even colourably substantiate the claim that the organisation The report remarks that the institution of these tests was not without some opposition, but that it had been felt that some officers were not keeping themselves up to full efficiency. “The result of the tests tells its own story,” the report says. “Passes numbered 62, or 47 per cent.; 64 failed, or 47 per cent.; and 6 per cent., or 8, gained partial passes. Such an outcome invites some comment. The efficiency test does not seek to inquire what the candidate knows beyond what ought to be the knowledge at his command if he is to discharge his official functions satisfactorily. Moreover, it is open to all officers, including those who are not handicapped by insufficient educational attainment and who are presumed to be efficient. Because of the position they occupy, the result of their test shows that too great a number belie their presumptive efficiency.

“Then, it must be remembered that a pass was secured with 50 per cent, of the possible marks. It is not unreasonable to expect a competent officer when - examined on his day-to-day duties to display virtually a faultless comprehension of the field in which he is constantly operating. Yet it has to be admitted that, although less than half the examinees were adjudged to have Satisfied a 50 per cent, standard, there was a' disquieting proportion of those who have been granted a pass who have struggled not much beyond that minimum standard. Security and Complacency

“All this provided unwelcome but nevertheless indisputable corroboration of the idea that security of office tends to induce a complacency that rests content with what has been achieved. When one, ventures to inquire, in the only possible way, whether this state of affairs does in fact exist, it is not to be wondered at that some officers are startled into fearful protest. Forebodings are awakened among those who have cause for apprehension. This was to be expected, but it was prophesied before the event that those officers who had no cause for alarm would comport themselves with quiet assurance.”

Inquiry had been made of quite half the entrants to find their real attitude toward the tests, says the report. Those questioned were in no way selected, and were questioned in conditions that gave them the fullest freedom to express opinions, but there was not a single instance of criticism o' the principle or nature of the tests, or Of the questions set in the examination papers.

“In any event, the rectitude of a reform rests upon its demonstrable merits and is not to be judged by any animosity it may arouse,” says the report. “Progress would not even be an idea if it had succumbed to opposition. Rather it thrives because of it and in spite of it. The notion of testing efficiency is inherent in improvement. The machine. owner who does not subject his machine to test knows full well he but bespeaks trouble, if not disaster, for himself. How much more needful is it to test the effectiveness of a staff of a large concern such as the Public Service, upon whose efforts the competent administration of the whole state depends. The self-satisfied, the unctuous, the lazy will resent it; that is to be expected. The zealous, the ambitious will, and do, welcome the project.”