THE EDUCATION BOARD'S CLASSIFICATION SCHEME.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10625, 21 March 1896, Page 2

THE EDUCATION BOARD'S CLASSIFICATION SCHEME.

THE PORT CHALMERS APPOINTMENT.

At Thursday's meeting of the Education Board tho matter of the appointment of a fkst atsshtant teacher to the Fort Chalmers District High School was dealt with. After applications had been invitsd the board sent to the school committee the names and testimonials of all the candidate? whom the board considered eligible. In doing so the secretary wrote :— The board are of opinion that one of the four following candidates should be appointed, as they are considered the most suitable :— Eudey, Walter ... Classified C2 Hodge, Owen J. ... '' Cl Marshall Ansus ' G2 Pinder Edward ... " Bl The following candidates are also considered suitable :— Clark Wm H. ... Classified B2 Ellis, Percy \V*. ... " B2 Gray, James 11. ... " Bl M'Nickle, John A. ... " A2 Finkney, Hy. H. ... " Bl And the board request the committee to expresß their opinion as to the appointment. The names are given in alphabetical order.

The committee having met selected Mr J. H. Gray, and notified the board to that effect. The board then decided to request the school committee to explain the reasons which guided them in ,their selection. Mr A. Thomson, secretary to the committee, in the course o£ his communication in reply, wrote :—

Mr Gray is well known here, having taught in our school for a year. During that time he proved himself a most successful teacher, and we are satisfied the experience gained.in other schools since must Have givan him additional fitness for filling the position of first arsist'ant. When resident in Port he endeared himself to the children, and became very popular with both parents and others, and this face is as e.videut to-day as ever from tho many hearty expressions of , approval reaching the committee when it became known that ho was chosen. As regards his classifications, it never occurred to us to question his standing. The board having sent his name down a3 a suitable candidate, quite satisfied us on that point, and we cannot but express surprise that, having choseu Mr .Gray, you should now seek to limit us to the first four names.

In ciinneC'ion with the question of choosing candidates by certificate alone, the Port Committee had a very bitter experience; and, although it is years ago, it will never he forgotten. The credentials of the applicant for the position of rector were of the histliert, but he was unknown, and proved a dismal failure, being obliged to resign after a short and very unsatisfactory tenure of office. In the lisht of such experience the committee concluded it to be the much more prudent course to select a well-known man, who occupies a high pasitioa iu his profession, and has successfully taught herd alre-uly, in preference to uttier good men, but who are not known to us as Mr Gray is.

The Education Board then resolved thst the Selection Committee should seek a conference with the -committsa of the Port Chalmers District High School. The latter body replied that while recognising the courtesy of toe bo»rd in asking that a coaferesce be held, they failed to discover what benefit would result from the meeting. The committee fa&d exhaustively considered the subject, and came to a conclusion on the merits of the candidates and iu the best interests of the school. There would therefore be a very remote possibility of the committee altering their views as already expressed.

The board at Thursday's meeting first considered the matter in committee. Upon resuming in open board,

Mr Fkasek moved—"That the recommendation of the Port Chalmers Committee that Mr J. H. Gray bs appointed first assistant of their school be confirmed by the board." In doing so he said that he supported the committea's recommendation on several grounds. The board had sent down to the committee the names of eerfcaiu candidates as bang suitable for the vacant position. They said in effect: 1 Wa 3trongly reoominend certain candidates, but if you don't care for them the other candidates are suitable.' How then could the bosrd tarn round now and say that Mr Gray was nat a suitable candidate ? Iu the ease of *h.a Macundrew road vacancy the committea had selected from ihe .second list, anß thsir action was confirmed by the board, and the board could not draw distinctions between committees. If the board refused to ratify the selection of the Pott Chalmers Committee they would he inviting friction,' aud, in his opinion, would bt in .the wrong .from the start. At the sime time he could not eompjitnanfe the Port, Chalmers Committee upon their courtesy. They should undoubtedly have met the board when they were iuvited to do so. He had some misgivings about the .Appointments Cooamittee as at prsseat .constituted. Ifc was undoubtedly a thoroughly trustworthy .committee, but he could, understani that it might easily become very much less trustworthy than an ordinary committee, because tjje board were accessible to all the influences that effected a coiamjttae's judgment.

Dr Stenhouse seconded tb.9 motion. He had from the first opposed the appointment of a selection committee, holding that that matter should reafe in the whole board.—(Mr B.orbie ; " So it does practically, since they review the committee's decisions.") But that was very different. .The teord, and nobody but the board, should deal with the matter of appointments. Iu this particular matter the Selection Committee had blundered from the outset. If they wished to restrict the committee's choice to only the "most suitable" candidates they should have forwarded the four namus; but havius; sent on the entire list, and said that all the aacaes there given were suitable, the committee were entitled to seleot aay one of them, us they did, and declared that in their judgment he was the moat suitable.

13.C Cohen denied that the present difficulty had arisen, as had been asserted by Mr Fraser, through the administration of the new regulations breaking down at the outset. The truth was that cert&ia members of the board were quite prepared, on the first opportunity, to go back on their o.wa regulations, which had been devised to reward "deserving teachers" anu to secure promotion by merit—not by backstairs influence. Regulation 25 defined under four h-ada the way iu which the claims oE teachers should be assus-,e-3, and it was exprtsiiy enacwi thstt that assssfimeat should be arrived at after consultation with the inspectors. How had the Selection Committee acted? Th^y had gone exhaustively ..and judicially through the list of candidates .and presented a ljst of Jihe " most suitable," comprising the four candidates win best fulfilled the reqairemeuts of Regulation 25. Iu proof of his assertion that they bad acted judicially, he mentioned that the committee had unanimously come to the conclusion that Mr C. R. Smith, of the Stirling School, was, judged by his record of success as a teacher of primary <ind secondary subjects, .the equal of auy of the .caadidates selected; .but they felt constrained to exclude his name because he unfortunately did not possess the qualification required, though strongly sympathising with h|iu, iunsmucb. as he had misinterpreted regulation 37. Had fche .committee beew able to have regarded Mm »g eligible they would have unhesitatiugly have bracketed him with tha '"most suitable" of the candidates. The minutes of the committee, the report of the lattat to the board, aud the resolution of the board showed as clearly &s language could dem.Dnss.rate the fact that only four names had bw.u selected as "most suitabla"; in respect to all the others, iacludiug Mr Gray, the decision of ths committee,, which the board endorsed, was to pass them on without word or eoanneqfc. It was, he quite admitted, very >urjfortnajt3 that the letter to the Port Chalmers Com-, miltae, covering the whole of the appljcatioas, spoke of the r<wt of the candidates as *' 'U'table," There was no authority of the bj.ar.l to so designate them, and .he contended th it. tha bo&rd were bound only by the express termi of their resolution. As for Mr Gray as an individual he had nothing to say but to express bis appreciation, aud he, as a coinuiitteeauu who had had opportunities of judging, had borne ample testimony of that gentleman's abilities ana teacher • but he was not .there to consider any individual. He had gone op. to the Selection Committee in the bnl.ief that he had to di*charge a semi-judicial office., and, .to interpret the regulations in a spirit of abioluto fairness to all' concerned ; and, so believing, he had not been able to say, having in his mind oil the requirements of regulation 25, that Me Gray stood on the same plane, as any of the candidates selected £3 '-'most suitable." • The board had with due deliberation declared that length of service uuder them should constitute a factor iu determining promotion; yet a section of the board were prepared, at the very outset, to. disregard their own regulation on that behalf. If injustice were done to Mr Gray by tbe Selection Committee declining practically to count his absence in another colony, whither he had gone for his own reasons, as service under. thja bo&rd, then a cruel wrong bad been done to Me Smith in rejecting his candidature, though fully qualified in all save one particular. In his (Mr Cohen's) opinion Blr Smith's ca.se was a much harder case than Mr Gray's, yot no member of the board had rontured to sta'id up in defence of the former. It was ■ the purest clajitrap on Mr Fraser's part to say that ths Salection Committee had had their v:misy wouaded and were hurt because the committee had burked the attempt to endow the board with new powers. The committee had throughout acted impartially, and with the sole dboire to further the cause of education. They had induced the board to sanction a conference with tho Port committee, becanse at that committee table it was thought that a give-and-take course might be adopted; tba1' tbe Selection Committee would be able to provu to the satisfaction of any unbiassed person what the clear intention of the board was, and to have furnished tbe Port Committee with every particle of information that had guided the Selection Committee in their decision. It was the board that had been flouted. It was never intended to have a conference whenever a disagreement arose, but aeeint; ho it easy it was for tha.Eoxfc Commiltaa

to coma to town it was thought that they would have cheerfully fallen in with the idea. He (Mr Coheu) would not have considered it infra dig. to have met the Port Committee in tu'eir own school and to ha.vo threshed the question • out there. He was for once in thorough agreement with Mr Fr&Ber, and echoed his Bentiment that interference with a dispute of this kind by j teachers was to be deprecated. He (Mr 1 Coten) would go a step further and say that I if teachers actively interposed in these j matters, as he was credibly informed had j happened in this case, it would be the bounden j duty of the boa,rd to take steps to prevent it. If the board were not able to carry on their duties witliont ths interposition of certain teachers the sooner the board ceased to exist the better. The board had refused the benefits of the bonus nyatem to a large proportion of'.' the teachers under an implied pledge that it would give them a scheme of classification which would ensure promotion by merit, and reward long and honourable' service. How were the board beginning to act "up to their professions ? He was quite indifferent to the wishes of any committee, if satisfied in his mind that their course was not in the best interests of education, ■ and feeling satisfied that, in this instancs, it was a distinct violation of the spirit and intention of thoir regulations, he wouid vote agniast the recommendation of the committee. But as he recognised that there had besn mistakes on both sides, and in the hope that other counsels would prevail, and lead to a peaceable settlement of the difficulty, he moved aa an amendmeut— " That the name? of the candidates selected by the Selection Cornmittae as coustituting the most suitable of the candidates, and endorsed by the board at their meeting in February, be again forwarded to the Port Chalmers Committee, and that they be asked to make a selection therefrom."

Mr Phaser said the attitude he took up on thi3 mutter was not affected by outside interest in the slightest. He did not know Mr Gray or his iriends. He v?as going' on the broad facts of the cafe so far as they presented themselves to his mind Mr- Cohen's arguments against the Port Chalmers Committee's selection, were more in the nature of special pleading in many instances than plain statements of facts to influence - the conduct of the board. In the first place he did not understand how Mr Cohen could challenge his position when he said that the board having forwarded to the committee the name of Mr Gray as a suitable candidate could not now stultify itself and say " You can't have Mr Gray." Why should namea ba forwarded to the committee at all if they were not suitable candidates' for selection. That waa where the board had gone utterly wrong. There was no doubt about Mr Gray's qualifications under the rules.—(Hear, hear.) Was there anything in this case to tske it out of the ordinary rule. The board said in all other cases they sent forward the names of suitable candidates. . Then why should they deal out exceptional treatment to this committee ? By doing so they straiued their functions in order to give the committee a slap in the face. He hoped the board would confirm the nomination of the Port Chalmers Committee ; and, in order to avoid this conflict in future, let the board be more explicit, and limit the candidates, if they thought that should be done.

Dr Stenhoosb said he took different ground, perhaps, from any member of the. board, for he was strongly opposed to a selection committee at all. He held that the board had full power of selection in their own hands by determining upon a teacher in open board. He could ses great inconvenience from following the method that hsd been adopted with regard to the selection of a teacher. There would be an effort on the part of some teachers to ingratiate themselves! with the inspectors, while strong and independent men would not co tha.t sort' of thing ; and the consequence would bel that in a great many cases teachers would be recommended by inspectors on grounds of "personal favour rather than on their merits, and men who were conscious of their merits and did not try on these little games would be very often shunted into the background. In regard to the present case, the boara had not a leg to aland on. The committee made a lona fide selection, never draamiug that there would be any friction between them and the board, and immediately the committee got a slap in th« face. Now .that the board had found the position they were in they should have quietly concurred in the appointment of Mr Gray. He looked upon this rale of the Selection Committee of sending two or three namea down ta the eotemiltees us far too rigid. Wera they nob to admit hereafter any teacher from outside—men who had left the Eetviea and wished to return to it, and men of great ability coming from the olcicountry or from Australia—or any teacher in the servica deserving of promotion ? They should, he thought, welcome good men into the teaching profession, no matter where they came from ; and on that ground he did not at all concur with what had been urged by Me Cohen. It hid been said again and again at the board that scholarship was never a proof of teaching ability. '■■«'•

Sir Cohen ; We have recognised that.

Dr Stenhouse: You have: recognised that, but perhaps not sufficiently.—(Laughter.) He proceeded to say that even on the ground of length of service the Selection Committee had contradicted themselves in the recommendatiou which they made in the forenoon. There were men who in a vary short time showed a predominating capacity for teaching such as to far outweigh any length of service. So there were a great many things to be taken into consideration. ,

Mr Cohen : We have considered all of them,

Dr Stenhouse : I hold if you have taken these three things into consideration Mr Gray is as good a man as any of them. He (Dr Stenhouse) went on to say that he hoped school committees would not part with one iota of the small privileges they enjoyed in connection with the education of their children. They should enjoy the privilege that was given them in regard to the selection of a teacher, and they should see that they got a teacher in 'accordance with their wishes. He would remind the board that in Great Britain the education board did not interfere in any way with the appointment of teachers. The proper mud legal thing now for the board to do, seeing that they had got themselves into a mess, was to send Mr Graj's name down ; and they should be very careful in future what they did, as he (Or Steuhouse) would not be there to guide toem.—(Loud laughter.) Mr Hlackknzu; eaid he wes going to support ,the school committee in the selection of MiGray, because his name wss sent down with others and he was declared by the board to be suitable. There were also communications from the board to the committee. If they did not bind the board, what did bind them ? He thought the Port Chalmers Committee had no'. been as courteous as tho btmrd could have expected them to be. — (Hear, hear.) The board had aeked them to meet and confer with the board regarding the appointment, and they had not done so. Still, that did not alter the fact that the board submitted certain names to the committee, and declared certain candidates ;to be "suitable" and "most suitable." The selection o£ a teacher might be a matter of great importance in a community, and what Mr Cohen said regarding a teacher's point of view he did not dispute at all. But in country districts a teacher was a considerable centre of influence, and if he was a disagreeable teacher and ouc that did not suit the committee, it was a matter of very great annoyance. The Port Chalmers Committee were satisfied with the man they had selected. He had qualifications equal to others. Now, tbe duty of the board was clear. It waß: that they should send the names of the candidates down and give the committc3 the privilege of selecting out of the names sent down. If they had not that power, what was the use of 'sending a number of names to them ? The board had no right to send down the names of persons "suitable" or "most suitable" unless they were prepared to accept from the committee one of those names. Bat seeing wliat hud been done, and that the committee had selected a qualified man and were desirous of getting him, he (Mr Mackenzie) thought the board could not do better than let the matter rest at that point.

The Hon. J, MacGbeooe said he was prepared to second the amendment moved by Mr Cohen, aud he would state his reasons for doing S3. The arguments used .by Mr Mackenzie amounted to this : that the board should revect to the position of leaving the matter to the committee. Mr Mackenzie said the committee wished this man, and it was the board's duty to do whatever the committee wished. He (Mr MacGregor)' and most members of the board had been for a long time ashamed of the course of procedure adopted in connection with appointments. That course had been* a disgrace to the board; it had discredited the teaching profession in Otago, and it had been a standing injustice to the teachers in the board's service. They had an iustance of the extraordinary procedure in the loss of one of their, teachers who had been appointed to a large school in Timaru. If they bad bad a rational system of promotion, Mr Johnson would have had charge of one of the big schools in Dunedin before this.

Dr Stenhouse remarked that it was far better for teachers to have the whole world before them.

The Hon. J. MaoGebgoe, proceeding, said they v;ere considering the interests of education in Otago, and not the whole world, aud he maintained that in consequence of the extraordinary procedure in connection with their appointments, they were losing their best teachers, because those teachers saw no hope of getting promotion from the board. He had all along Eet his face against the rule that outsiders were uot to be admitted. .

Mr Mackenzie : Yet yon adopt it now. The Hon. Mr MacGregor : Not at ell, sir. I am not flghtiug this on personal grounds. The position I take up in regard to it is this : I never thought of excluding a teacher from outside, but 1 say this is a rational attitude to take up with regard to a man in Mr Gray's position. When he has chosen to leave the service he has no right to come back and expect to get the highest jjositian. in. the aenica..—iiHeaiv.ttfiar.Ji

Now, here we have a man—l don't care for ] what reasons be left us, but he did leave us— and after seven or 10 years it is in bis own interest to come back. He is senkiag now to be '• pat in one of the highest positions in our service. When he comes back be should be prepared to work himself up. After a great i deal of time and cnreful consideration we have i agreed upon o scheme having tor its object the securing of promotion to deserving teachers, | but after all this trouble tho board is deliI ber&tsly forsaking that principle.—(Cries of "No, no!" and "Yes!") We are simply I going back upon old principles and taking as I our only guide of what we must do what the committeeß wish. I, however, will not sit hers and take up the position that we are bound to do what the committees wish. 1 Mr Fhaskk : All the othero do. The Hon. Mr MacGregop. said he was not saying anything about the others. The position with regard to this matter was that the boatd was goiiKf bo ratify an appointment of a committee sin ;jly because the committee asked them to. , Members of the board had jumped at n little point in the letter sent to the committee, and had made that a pretext and excuse fjr the position they took up. 'What was •the dclib ruts resolution of the beard in sending down those names ? Every member knew I what was the deliberate intention. The resolution was that four names should ba sent and recommended us, in the opinion of the board, most suiiablc; and that other names mentioned should also be sent to the school committee simply for the purpose of consulting the cummittee. Now they hid brooght before them a letter which conveyed to the coinmit'.es"something' that was not the resolution of the.board. If members of the board did not. wish to understand the ,thing it was waste of time arguing with them. The question was were the board bouud because a mistake had beeu made. To argue in such a way was simply to tv- V. for an ex^.uje for backing out of a position. The amendment moved by Mr Cohen went as ft r in the direction of meeting the committee aa thiy could in fairness expect. It would have been the duty of the board, if it had been prepared to do its duty, to have simply | proceeded and elected the rava. whom they «onI sidered the most deserving of promotion. - But Mr Cohen's amendment gave the committee an j opportunity of doing what they should have [ done in the first instance. If the board was. t not prepared to carry out their owo regulations they had no backbone, and it would be better for them to give up passing regulations wheu they were cot prepared to stick to them. He thought the duty of the board was to appoint Mr Finder, who stood very high in merit and deserved promotion. The inspectors reported in' the highest terms of him. He had got very high percentages, and ii; was recognised that he was entitled to promotion ; and now the board had deliberately devised a scheam for securing pro- : motion but they refused to carry ouv. Mr Bobbie B3.id he was quite certain that the members of the Selection Committee bad done their best in the matter, and he did not think any member of the board was inclined to throw any blame upon them.—(Hear, hear.) The members of the board were in favour of carrying this resolution to make the appointment of Mr Gray. Everyone had agreed that the only mistake was iti sendiug this name down. Morn than one speaker had said if they did not send down that name there would have been no fault to tiad. He was not prepared to blame anybody in particular about the juii-take that h»d beeD made, but he kuew thero had betn a blunder somewhere. The latter thai went down to the committee did not convey the intention either of tho Selection Committee or of the Education Board.—(Hear, hear.) But, on the other hand, if the boird was to blame it was to blame in tbis way: The board asked a particuiar member to draft a circular letter to be sent in all cases, and there were various letters drawn up, and the board approved of one. Probably they did that too hurriedly. They approved of one which met certain cases— (hear, hear),—and he thought it was drawn up in such a way as to meet both canes—where there was one " leet" or where there were two " leets.". They were all agreed that a mistake had besn made, and now they seemed to be going on the Yankee system, where, having made a mistake, they were determiaed to stick to it. He did not think that anyone would be injured uow if the board retraced their steps. Sir M'Kkrrow said ha could ne.'i no sense in the board not endorsing the e election made by tha committee. If the board vreve going to take up this position—were going to send forward names and ask the opinion of the committee, and then give them a slap in the face and say: "We size going to do something else " —it wes simply abjurd.

The amendment was then put to the meeting, and lost by five votes to four, the voting being as follows:—For- Messrs MacGregor, Cohen, Borne, -and Clark; against: Messrs Mackenzie, Fraser, Green, H'Kerrow, and Dr Stenhouse.

The motion was subsequently put and carried, the votiDg being the same ae before.