EFFICIENCY TESTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 49, 26 August 1939, Page 8

EFFICIENCY TESTS

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —The proposals to subject the majority of public servants to a series of efficiency tests have created a furore of protests, and there seems to be no lack of sound arguments available against the proposals. These in effect merely take a stage further a system of allotting individual marks which is already in operation, under the name of "Reports on Officers." This marking system is so obviously unfair and ridiculous that instead of protesting about their marks many of the men who have felt aggrieved about them have consoled themselves by treating the matter as a joke. In spite of the fact that the., marking system has so many obvious possibilities of error and unfairness, the Public Service Commissioner regards it seriously. While those concerned are busy trying to have the efficiency examinations withdrawn it would be in the public interest to tackle the other matter also.

The Public Service Commissioner has probably been encouraged to introduce the marking system oy the success (more apparent than real" of the system of grading teachers with marks, which has been in operation for some years. The basis of this system is that every teacher is allotted marks under various headings by an inspector who visits the school and may see the teacher at work for only a few hours upon one or two days (rarely more) each year. From these marks the teachers are arranged in order of merit. If a certain primary school position is vacant it must definitely be given to the applicant who is highest on the graded list, even if he be only one mark ahead of another applicant. Not even the provision of a Teachers' Appeal Board is an adequate safeguard against the possibility, nay, the certainty that serious errors can occur. After seeing for a few hours the work of a teacher <it Pukerau, how can one inspector justly allot him the same marks as a different inspector gives to another man who is doing different work at Waipukurau? The support given to the grading system by the teachers themselves clearly indicates their failure to realise the errors ot the marking methods they daily appiy to their pupils' work. Obviously very considerable variations may easily occur in the allotment of marks to indicate the various personal characteristics which affect a man's capability for efficiently performing his work, even when the marking is done by people like teachers or school inspectors who have daily practice in allotting marks. How much greater then are the errors and injustices which are sure to occur when these marks are allotted by men who have no experience whatever in making such assessments. The teachers' grading system was introduced with the object of getting away from the evils of the previous method of making appointments. Whatever benefits the teachers themselves think they have derived from it, it has imposed certain grave handicaps upon the pupils. Like