PROMOTION OF TEACHERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15501, 7 January 1914, Page 5

PROMOTION OF TEACHERS.

DOMINION SYSTEM DESIRED.

One of the aims of the New Zealand Educational Institute is to establish a Dominion system of promotion. This subject was touched upon by Mr. E. K. Mulgan, Chief-Inspector to the Auckland Education Board, in his address to the Institute yesterday. This system, he said, would follow naturally were the desired Council of Education set up to administer the service, but it would be a mistake to wait until that was achieved. He went on to speak of the benefit which would be derived from a uniform system of grading throughout tie Dominion. At the present time, when an application for a position was received from, a teacher in another district, he was invariably placed at a disadvantage, because a board did not know him or his qualifications. Thus teachers in the smaller districts were placed under a severe handicap. If, however, there was a uniform system throughout the country, the opportunities of all teachers would be equalised, it would tend to raise their academic qualifications, and it would make x teachers more happy and contented.. "You cannot get the best efforts out of anyone if he suffers from a sense of wrong and injustice, and many of the teachers of the smaller districts do suffer from this cause," said the speaker. He concluded by showing what advantages had resulted from the grading scheme adopted in the Auckland district. Some remarks on the subject were also made by Mr. G. Hogben, InspectorGeneral of Schools. A Dominion system of grading, he said, would "be much easier to obtain that a Dominion system of promotion. In the past the want of uniform grading had stood in the way of the system, but the inspectors now met frequently, and he thought they would be able to arrive at a uniform standard of working. Mr. Hogben expressed himself as op posed to the centralised system of education, but he thought that a centralised inspectorate would be an improvement. He had never found out what was meant by a Dominion system of appointments, unless it meant the centralised system. If so, he thought that the evils : which would result would outweigh the advantages. The Inspector-General added that he was merely speaking as an " irresponsible individual," and not as an official of the Department.