GRAADING TEACHERS

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 57, 6 February 1925, Page 10

GRAADING TEACHERS

NEW ZEALAND SYSTEM. , GOOD WORK BY INSPECTORS. P«r Press Association. WELLINGTON, Feb. 4. The school inspectors of New Zealand, said the Minister of Education, Sir James Parr, while welcoming delegates to the School Inspectors' Conference to-day, are required to perform duties not. required of inspectors in any other part of the Empire—the grading of teachers for promotion. Only a very few years ago teachers had very circumscribed areas for promotion, for they were not allowed to go outside their own district, and the resuft was that there was discontent. To-day the case was very different for Dominion-wide promotion had greatly improved the status of tie teacher. He could go from North Cape to lnvereargill. An lnvereargill teacher could go to Auckland. It was no exaggeration to say that tho grading of teachers was the most responsible duty which fell to the inspectors of schools, and he appreciated very much the fine sense of responsibility in which the task of classification of 6000 teachers was undertaken. The inspectors were to be complimented upon the roma'rkable success which they had achieved in that task. Three or four years ago it was said that it was an impossible task, that uniformity of appraisement could never be attained when a number of separate bodies and a number of inspectors were concerned in a single grading, and certainly it had looked a tough job. Ho realised there never could be absolute uniformity, and rather marvelled at tho success achieved. The number of appeals. had been vory small, and. tho number of successful appeals still smaller. Senior inspectors had said the system had been brought as near to perfection as possible, and he believed that was the case. Tho exchange of inspectors from district to district and from one part of a district to another, lie believed, was of great value in bringing about uniformity. All boards with the exception of one wore satisfied with tho system whereby teachers were promoted according to classification in place of tho more or less inexpert opinion of the boards and at the last conference of Education Board delegates there was almost complete unanimity in favour of the grading system. He was not going to say there were no shortcomings, but on the whole he believed it was the fairest system. lne Canterbury Board proposed that, instead of the highest grade applicant receiving an appointment, applicants within live marks should be considered; but within the range of five marks there might be as manv as 60 teachers. The proposal received no support from other boards and the Teachers' Institute promptly condemned it. On the whole, he considered the grading system operated "much more satisfactorily than the old system, and though it might happen sometimes that not quite the best man for a particular post might. K et that post, fairness would bo preserved if advantage was taken of that clause in the regulations which permitted inspectors and boards to disregard strict grading it special circumstances existed. lho departmental officers and yourselves, concluded Sir James, "are charged with the most important task that any body of men can undertake in a modern democracy, and I rejoice that in this body New Zealand possesses a band of men who in culture, experience and conscientiousness are probably unsurpassed in any part or the Empire."