P.P.T.A. should monitor teachers—head

Press, 16 November 1987, Page 7

P.P.T.A. should monitor teachers —head

By

JENNY LONG

Teachers’ classroom performance should be set and monitored by the Post-Primary Teachers’ Association at this time when parents and school boards see difficulties in “getting rid” of inadequate teachers, says the principal of Cashmere High School.

Speaking at the school prize-giving, Mr John Murdoch said that much had been said lately about teachers’ accountability.

He said that the teachers’ association had allowed itself to be seen as a hard-line union, attempting to set and protect minimum standards that were far below those that parents saw as reasonable. Mr Murdoch said he made the comments both as a secondary school principal and as a pastpresident of the PostPrimary Teachers’ Association.

“I think the time has come for the association to take a much higher profile in the (accountability) debate, and to insist that it is the professional association of teachers that should be responsible for setting and monitoring professional standards, including performance in the classroom.

“Nearly all secondary teachers are dedicated practitioners who act professionally and do a thoroughly competent job in conditions which often

do not match their contribution.

“A few, and only a few, do not cope with the demands of the job.”

Mr Murdoch said that at present, schools’ boards of governors were the teachers’ employers, with responsibility for appointment and dismissal. When teachers were appointed, the P.P.T.A. played no part, but when boards sought to dismiss a teacher, the association was obliged to provide a defence. “The association has a record of successfully defending many of these teachers, and as a result has gained a reputation as being more interested in protecting its members than in promoting high professional standards.”

Mr Murdoch said he felt the P.P.T.A. should not allow that to continue. Instead, it should set the professional criteria, and investigate all complaints about members. Teachers would then have to accept the responsibility of having to make judgments about the conduct or teaching performance of

their colleagues. If an investigation should show a members’ performance to be substandard, the employing board would be advised, and the board, as employer, would have to provide its employee’s defence, Mr Murdoch said.

The general secretary of the P.P.T.A., Mr Kevin Bunker, said the association was “not in the business of defending the indefensible.” The association’s role in teachers classification or consideration of teacher performance was to ensure that the procedures were properly conducted, he said. Mr Bunker felt that it could be good to give school boards more responsibility regarding teacher appointment and performance, but more training would need to be given to boards.

However, Mr Bunker said that Mr Murdoch’s proposal represented such a radical change that members would probably need to be consulted before any comment was made.