STAFF CHANGES

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 16, 21 July 1921, Page 8

STAFF CHANGES

EFFECT ON SCHOOLS

c6mplaint of committees.

■ Multiplicity of staff changes in the primary schools was referred to by. a deputation from the. Wellington School : Committees' Association which-met;.the Minister of Education (the Hon., 0.-J: Parr) this morning. 1 Mr. A. Sando said that the assaciaiion had adopted a motion stating that, to avoid the dislocation of the schoolteaching staff, thus impairing the efficiency of the work of \the school, provision should be mad« for a greater range of salaries without the necessity of transfer. Salaries should! be based on efficiency, academic attainments, service, .and domestic responsibility. One school with a staff of twenty-one had 1 had eighteen changes in three years. In another school there had been five changes .in one class in a year. • ' The Minister : "The teachers desire promotion." Mr. Sando : "Yes, but many of them would be willing to remain if they could get the promotion without the transfer." .' The Minister said that he could not agree to keep a teacher in a school at a high salary when that-teacher might be doing better work in another position. Mr. Sando said that of course there were limits. They could 1 not expect a school to be staffed with potential headmasters. Failing the change-that they proposed, they asked that transfers should be'made only, at the end of each school year, so that* a school might havei the same staff throughout the year. He -believed that a part of the difficulty of ■attracting suitable men to the teaching profession was the uncertainty of promotion under the present system. ■ The Minister said that the request for a._ greater range of salaries carried with it a considerable increase in the cost of staffing the schools. When he 'said that the cost was now £1,550,000, they would understand that, having regard to the present financial position it. was hopeless to expect the Government ■to make any change involving additional cost. There might bo ways, however, of niinimising the inconvenience to the individual schools arising from too frequent staff changes. When h e was .a member of the Auckland Education Board they decided that no teacher should be eligible for transfer within two years of appointment to the position held. He believed that rule was still in operation;" and H involved no hardship on the teachers. He saw no reason why the Wellington Education Board should not make a similar rule. He was quite sure that the examples £iven him did not represent the normal condition of things; but he would have the matter thoroughly investigated. There waa little complaint from other districts. The suggestion that all transfers should bo made at the end of the school year was worth consideration. He would not projnis* to initiate any system which would encourage a teacher to remain in a comfortable school when a better salary would induce that teacher to apply for the headmastership of a country school, where he would do better work. Ho was rather at a loss to understand why there should bo eight grades under the present classification system, and he might make a suggestion to the Education Department that the number of grades should be reduced, so that greater scope for promotion within tbe grade would be provided.