“School Certificate Should Not Be Standard”

Press, Volume C, Issue 29695, 13 December 1961, Page 9

“School Certificate Should Not Be Standard”

(New Zealand Preet Association)

WELLINGTON, Dec. 12. The Public Service should abandon school certificate as an entranee standard, the Secretary for Industries and Commeree (Dr. W. B. Hutch) told the Royal Commission on State Services today. “I believe that the school certificate has a stultifying effect on post-primary education in New Zealand and have recommended to the commission on education that it be abolished," he said.

The minimum educational standard for entry for all d.visions of the Public Service should be four years’ good secondary education or equivalent, said Dr. Sutch. For clerical and professional divisions, the minimum entry should be university entrance. He did not think the Public Service Commission had made nearly the attempts it siould have to recruit youngrters rom secondary schools “They have shown very little imagination. I feel much greater effort could have been made to make the Public Service seem an attractive place. Making it harder to get in might attract more people than you think " . D j said education s’ood out as the most important thing for the Public Service of the future. This should be wider and deeper and not specialised. University work should be full time and there should be many more non-specialist graduates in the service. Good Graduates If the service could not recruit good graduates and enc urage higher education for serving public servants. New Zealand would fall behind m its development. He recommended a combined administrative and executive class which all could enter. The basic qualification would be an initial good university degree. Much emphasis had been given to encourage public servants to obtain university and professional qualifications by part-time study Dr Sutch said it was doubtful whether part-time study over several years produced jood qualifications. 'The Public Service Commission might well abandon the part-time system and extend substantially awards for full-time study. “They should also develop a policy of recruitment of graduates at higher starting salaries than are paid at present and with a surer ladder

of promotion than exists at present." He said New Zealand needed a Public Service staff college run under the brood direction o/ the Public Service Commission to provide advanced training and education for senior public servants. He suggested a centralised staff training school run by a strengthened staff training branch to help raise the level of training in the Public Service. Dr. Sutch said the classification structure in the New Zealand Public Service was designed almost 50 years ago and was now inadequate for a service which had grown in a breadth and depth of function. He supported the Public Service Commission's suggestion to amalgamate into one the separate divisions which now existed. Outstanding Juniors Dr. Sutch recommended departments should have authority to give accelerated promotion to outstanding juniors. Promotion should be automatic for good officers up to about £ll2O with a higher limit for graduates and a merit range of promotion above the automatic ceiling for above-average officers up to £l5OO on the present scale. Oontinuous regrading every year instead of every five years would mean there need

be no appeal system against regrading. He said the appeal board had an important influence on the making of appointmenis. This influence tended to protect seniority and mediocrity. “The question which is most often asked by officers making recommendations is not simply whether the best appointment has been made but rather whether it can be successfully defended on appeal.” Dt. Sutch recommended that the appeal board be abolished and the P.S.C. itself, supplemented by a special committee of permanent heads for some classes of appointments, should become the appeal authority. Retiring Age Dr. Sutch said the average retiring age could well be 62, with the possibility of retiring earlier or Inter by arrangement between the State organisation and the officer. Whether the retiring age be in the range from 55 to 65 years, the superannuation system should be made so flexible as to make it worth-while to continue beyond 40 yeans. Imaginative planning to meet greater problems of accommodation caused by growth was needed now. “A public service growth accustomed to a shoddy and grubby environment is not a good public service,” he said. A section should be established in the public service commission to give special attention to office design, lighting, glare, heating, ventilation and amenities, he said.