APPOINTMENT OF TEACHERS.

Evening Star, Issue 9775, 3 August 1895, Page 2 (Supplement)

APPOINTMENT OF TEACHERS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —It is indeed extraordinary that the Education Board, the Educational Institute, school committees, and conferences of committees find it difficult to devise a method whereby justice would be ensured to teachers who have been long in the service, and at the same time efficiency be en3tired. Judging by the utterances of the several bodies concerned, there is a consensus of opinion that such a method is needed and should be in existence. It is easily seen where the injustice comes in ; but where docs the difficulty as to a remedy come in ? It seems to me that the remedy, and not the difficulty, stares everybody in the face. It is as clear as anything can be that the evil in the method, or mo - method, of appointment under which* a large number of country teachers groan lies in the making as equally eligible for city and suburban positions all teachers who possess the "D" certificate simply—all, irrespective of long or short service and experience, or of none at all. In that the evil lies. If committees would give to holders of certificates won by long and efficient service the consideration which is their due i t wouldn't matter that the Board send them the names of all applicants. But they do not. Oftencr than otherwise they select a beginner, or one of short experience, as the " best qualified !" Why, it is absurd as well as unjust. More, in such instances the averment as to the " best qualified " being chosen is, on the face of it, not true.

It is, sir, on all hands admitted that there are anomalies in the treatment of teachers. Here is a glaring and farcical one :—While the unfair no-method mode of promotion is adhered to, " promotions " are from time to time issued from the head of the department. That is to say, teachers who bi-gan with tho I) certificate simply, and who by years of faithful and effective labor make their mark as capable workers, are raised (or promoted) to D 3 for service and efficiency, and by-and-bye, as a further recognition of their increased fitness for their work, to D2. Virtually they are told that, in the estimation of the authorities most competent to judge, they have so acquitted themselves and so proved their ability as to show they are qualified for superior positions, and that, to facilitate their advancement the certificates for service and efficiency are granted them. Thus these approved servants of the Board are promoted to higher rank, but with what result? With the result, in too many instances, that they are left where they are, while to younger ones, who have yet to win their spurs in the shape of certificates of experience and of merit, are given appointments that are not by right theirs. To those country teachers who, when they entered the service years ago, were emphatically told that before they could hope to get into town or suburban schools they must first, and for a limited time, serve in country districts, the promotion to higher rank is poor comfort indeed if it is not to be followed by that promotion in the proper seuße of the word which they were led to look forward to, for which they have labored, and for which their certificates declare they are qualified. It may reasonably be assumed as true that younger men and girls chosen for important positions are good teachers ; but it should with greater reason be assumed that those servants of the Board who have received certificates for service and | experience and efficiency are all the better, qualified. There is no blinking the fact thafthere is gross and intolerable unfairness in the no- j method mode of appointment; and again I say it is extraordinary that there should be any difficulty in devising a remedy that would ensure fair play without impairing efficiency.—lam, etc., Justitia. Dunedin, August 1.