TEACHERS’ TRANSFERS

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 69, 15 December 1931, Page 9

TEACHERS’ TRANSFERS

Securing Promotion “WRONG IN PRINCIPLE” In presenting an address last Saturday to the headmaster at Hataital, Mr. C. Robertson, 8.A., on the occasion of hl's transfer to the Berhampore School, Mr. 11. R. Searle, chairman of the Hataltai School Committee, said that in his opinion the system was wrong which made it necessary for a teacher to go to another school to secure the promotion to which he was justly entitled. All the knowledge of the children’s traits that the master had gained in the course of years was to a large extent wasted, because he had to go elsewhere and start over again vf ith different children. “On the other hand,” the speaker said, “there is the important factor of the children to be considered. They are suddenly deprived, perhaps at a critical stage of their primary education, of the' guidance and counsel of a teacher in whom they have confidence, whose methods they understand and appreciate, and one who is therefore able to assist them to register a maximum response. They are hurried off on to new angles of thought, and perhaps to an entirely different set of methods by a stranger. “If a protest was made, no doubt the. departmental reply would be that It was rendered necessary by the grading system,” Mr. Searle said. "Such a reply was unsatisfactory, especially when it was applied to a large and growing district such as Hataital, and it was distinctly against the interests and well-being of the children."