SCHOOL STAFFS

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 140, 15 June 1928, Page 8

SCHOOL STAFFS

(To the Editor.) Sir,—As headmaster of a large school, I crave space in your columns to traverse the statement which appeared yesterday under the above heading, lv my opinion the statement is emphatic enough, but it is certainly not convincing. The tirst few lines must be most misleading to people with scant knowledge o£ the method of staffing schools. The Director of Education states that in 1920 the average number of pupils per adult teacher was 36, whereas it is now 35. 1 do not know how these figures are arrived at, but 1 do know' that in my own school the number is very much" higher than this. Probably country schools with attendances varying from . 8 to 30 are included; but surely this kind of calculation is, to say the least of it, rather misleading. It is the matter of the average number of pupils pel' teacher in the town schools that is under discussion. I shall be surprised to hear that there are any town schools with average classes of 35 pupils. The nest emphatic heading is "Changes not Excessive." Well, Sir, my school is neither the Kilbirnie School nor the Te Aro School, but for your information I enclose a list of the names of adult teachers who were on the staff of my school in December last year. Those marked with, a cross have all left during the time that has elapsed since then, with the exception of one, who is leaving at the end of the current month. The list shows quite definitely that 50 per cent of my staff has left within six months. Can any headmaster run his school efficiently under such circumstances? It is all very well to say that such eases are' exceptional. The point is. that under a proper system they would be impossible. The Director thinks it sufficient to say "these • changes admit of reasonable explanation." No one said they didn't; but how does the reasonable explanation help the unfortunate children The reasonable explanation is merely that the teachers are seeking better positions in other schools. The reasonableness of such action is irrefutable; but why a system that makes, this changing about so reasonable? The next emphatic heading is "Telling Results." The Director points out that in 1922 the percentage of passes in Stand-, ard VI. was 77.7, whereas in 1927. it was 81.9. But what about the children who, as we headmasters know, are not reaching Standard VI. at all? This was the point that Mr. Hennessy stressed when the conference with the Minister of Education took place. Why has the Director overlooked this point? ■ .' . . One cannot help feeling that the Director is bent on proving the correctness or his own views rather than on finding a remedy for what is undoubtedly a grave evil. Those who have moved in this matter have been actuated by the very . best of motives, and it seems to me that, when such men are driven to appeal to public opinion in order to secure justice for the cliiKlreu, there is manifestly something wrong somewhere.—l am, etc., HEADMASTER. '