APPOINTMENT OF TEACHERS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIX, Issue 11559, 21 April 1898, Page 4

APPOINTMENT OF TEACHERS.

The Education Board did the right thing yesterday in inviting the Educational Institute to indicate the direction in which it would amend the present system of appointing teachers. The members of the Board, as the representatives of the public, have done tbeir best to settle this perplexing question in a satisfactory way, and it is now for the teachers to show in." what respect they have failed. We do not agree with Mr Adams that length of service and high classification should not be accepted as grounds for promotion indeed, we doubt if this is exactly what the retiring Chairman intended to say —but we fully recognise that these are not the first things to be considered in the selection of a teacher. “ Proved success,” as the Appointments Committee put it in its report to the Board, is, after all, the only conclusive evidence of a teacher's ability. He may bold a very high certificate and a record of long and faithful services ; but if he does not happen to possess those rare gifts that lead to success in his profession, he cannot be safely trusted with the charge of a large school. The Board seems, on the whole, to have done this part of its work fairly well, and we are not very sanguine that the Institute will be able to suggest any means by which the system of promotion could be improved. We should be very glad, however, to learn that there is some practical way of securing a more certain reward for the labours of the members of a very arduous profession.