DELAYED APPOINTMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20820, 12 March 1931, Page 12

DELAYED APPOINTMENTS.

TWO HEADMASTERSHIPS.

PROTEST FROM INSTITUTE.

The delay in the appointment of headmasters to tho Kovvhai and Otahuhu Junior High Schools and tho conditions of appointment fire the subject of further adverse criticism in a communication from Mr. A. B. Fordyce, president of «tho Auckland branch of the New Zealand Educational Instituto. Mr. Fordyce attributes the year's delay entirely to the Education Board's action in readvertising the position several times with varying conditions of appointment. "Something may bo said in favour of tho qualification, regarding junior high school service, and perhaps secondary or technical service, but the institute opposes strenuously the imposition of an age limit of 45 years," states Mr. iTordyce. "This restriction has been the means of debarring almost every headmaster of experience at present serving the board. In schools involving, as these do, the work in which these head teachers have excelled for years past, plus exploratory work for which they are by examination qualified, experience should count for something. The board sacrifices efficiency and experience and excludes from the chance of appointment those who may reasonably bo considered the most suitable applicants. "Another innovation is the requirement of a university degree. Hitherto tho B certificate has been considered of sufficient merit to warrant appointments to responsible positions, even to the inspectorate. Indeed, it may be claimed that the line of demarcation between tho B certificate and tho B.A. degree is so finely drawn as not to exist. They are equivalents for purposes of grading. Tho board, at the suggestion of tho department, has seen fit. to endorse this restriction.

"Tho instituto feels called upon to protest against any system which tends (1) to overrido tho accepted system of making appointments; (2) to undermine tho teachers' grading system; (3) to exclude efficiency and experience; and (4) to establish a precedent wheroby subsequent appointments may be legalised."