Education Gazette.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 606, 15 September 1883, Page 15

Education Gazette.

REPORT OF THE VICTORIAN COMMISSIONERS ON EDUCATION. (Continued). Appointment and Promotion of Teachers. “With reference to the returns of appointments made hy the Minister since the Act come into operation, contrary to, and without the recommendation of the permanent heads, the secretary of the department stated in his evidence, that, in the majority of these instances," he knew of no reason for these appointments,: as they were made by the Minister, either without any reference to the. department, or contrary to its recom ; mendation, but that in some eases the appointments made by the Minister were as suitable as those recommended by the department. In the year 1579 a - large number of appointments were made by the department in excess of the requirements of the schools to which the teachers were appointed. The evidence of the permanent head of the department showed that these appointments were made by the Minister, when he knew .that they were unnecessary; and in excess of the number authorised by the regulations issued under the Education Act. Apart altogether from the large extra and unnecessary expenditure thus incurred,

these persons were appointed irrespective of the higher claims of others. That political appointments have dpne a great deal: of injury may be gathered from the following evidenoe, given by one of the witnesses * I can mention two cases of political appointments in ray school, where two young people, without any classification whatever, were sent to me. One was an assistant teacher sent from Ballarat. She had no qualification, and had not even a license to teach, ; and had little or no experience in teaching. I found her thoroughly inefficient.’ This witness, after describing how utterly inefficient the teacher was, continued :— ‘ I called her aside -and spoke .to her, and said it was either inattention or ignorance of her. duties; that-if it was through , inattention ! had a right to report her. She said, “You may write ; but if you write to the Department, I will write to the Major.’” He complained to the department, but with po result. A sister of this young lady, also without any qualification; was sent up from Ballarat; although he had not applied for, and did nob ; want, any extra assistance Amongst other witnesses examined in reference to the question of appointments and promotions, was the Hon. Charles Henry Pearson, M.P., who was appointed under a Royal Commission in 1877, to report upon the Education Department. Mr Pearson in reference to the question of political patronage, gave the following evidence : ‘I never heard any complaints, I may say, about appointments of that kind, viz., political appointments, among the teachers, though I have often heard that you required interest to be properly pushed. The system is a thoroughly bad one ; at the same time you see the distinction. What I mean is this : the men feared that their particular claims would not be recognised unless they, in some way, brought themselves before the Minister’s notice.’ From the evidence given before us we have no hesitation in reporting to your Excellency our vopinion that it is of the highest importance to the future beneficial working of the Education Act, that a system of appointment and promotion of departmental officers and teachers should be, as early as possible, established by law, which should be free from all political or other favoritism or interference ; and which should be based upon certain fixed and well ascertained principles. The law so established must have for its aim the appointment, in the first instance, of . none but properly. qualified persons, and the promotion amongst those appointed of the most worthy, the length of past good service being taken into account with other merits, and that no unnecessary

appointments should be made. We believe the best mode of<&ttaining the end proposed would, be to adopt by statute the principle of competitive examination which has been by degrees established under orders of Her Majesty the Queen in Council, for the regulation of the Imperial Civil Service. These Orders-in-Council- would afford material to frame a colonial statute, which should contain such safeguards as would avoid the evasion, by which the Colonial Civil Service Act (as to any good effects to be produced by it) has been rendered a dead letter. Any regular system of appointments and promotions must be based upon a classification of officers, and preparatory to the introduction of the system, a preliminary classification of the present officers of the department, especially the teachers; both male and female, must be made. All subsequent promotions should be regulated in reference to the classification laid down in the general system. . There is no doubt, atthepresent time, dissatisfaction exists in the teaching staff in reference to appointments and promotions made in the past, and one of the points which has received our attention, is, how far that feeling would be allayed by a.classification of those now in the -service upon some fixed system which should regulate their claims to promotions in the future. From the evidence we have taken on this point, we believe the establishment of a regulated system of promotion which, would secure certainty- for the future, would be generally looked upon as some compensation for possible inequalities which might arise in the establishment of the preliminary classification. At the same time it is moat desirable that every exertion . should be used to minimise these inequalities to the utmost. The subject has been under the consideration of the department;; but up bo the present time no general scheme for the clasification, appointment, and promotion of teachers has been adopted. In accordance with instructions given by the Minister in a

memorandum of tfie 10th August, ISSO, certain officers of the department were engaged in the preparation of such a scheme. A report containing the recommendations of these officers, based upon lists of teachers prepared by the department, was presented to the Minister in "January, ISSI, but it appears from the evidence of Mr. Main, Assistant Inspector-General, who was one of the officers engaged in its preparation, that the report, the product of five months' continuous labor was ‘ laid on the table and left lying there.’ This report and scheme, so prepared by officers of experience, well deserves consideration and attention, although many modifications may be necessary when any permanent classification is adopted. The lists to which we have referred as used in the preparation of the officer’s scheme in themselves, as arranged, do not appear to us to afford the information which would be necessary as the foundation of the classification of the existing teachers ; and upon examining the Secretary of the department in reference to these, lists, he stated that they would not, of themselves, be sufficient to establish a classification from which promotions might in future be made ; but that it would be necessary to prepare a list giving the information we had requested from the department, which could be prepared only at some expenditure of money and time. In any system of classification to be adopted we would suggest that the classification should be twofold :—lst, a classification of offices, and, 2nd, a classification of officers; the first would graduate the offices in the disposal of the department ; the second, regulate the order in which the officers of the department were entitled to promotion from a lower to a higher degree ; in the classification of offices it would be necessary to classify the offices in the department, filled by the office staff separately, from those .filled; by the teaching staff. The classification and regulation of the offices filled by the office staff would probably be best regulated by reference to some system of classification of the department in the Civil Service generally. We would treat the inspectorship as amongst the offices connected with the teaching staff, to which they properly belong. If the principle of this system which ,we propose should be adopted-, the details of classification would necessarily require careful consideration by an independent B»ard in consultation with the heads of the department.”

(To be Continued.)