RIGHT OF APPEAL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26771, 14 May 1948, Page 3

RIGHT OF APPEAL

TEACHERS’ PROTECTION

There was dissatisfaction at the way the teachers’ grading list was set aside and the manner in which a teacher’s application could be declined in preference to an applicant of a lower grading, for no apparent reason, said Mr W. V. Hobin (Manawatu) at the annual conference of the New Zealand Educational Institute at Dunedin yesterday. On his motion, the conference agreed unanimously that the teacher’s right of appeal should be reaffirmed. Should a teacner be passed over in favour of a lower-grade applicant, his only redress was a complaint to his local Management Committee, at whose discretion it could be referred to the Dominion Executive for investigation with the department. The department, meanwhile, should have been notified by the Education Board concerned why the • applicant was passed over. The executive received the explanation in strict confidence, and there the matter rested. Neither the teacher concerned nor the Management Committee in his district could get anv further satisfaction. Mr Hobin said it was necessary to remove the discretionary power by which the Education Boards and the senior inspectors could select a teacher who had not the highest grading. _ If teachers were placed in their relative order on the grading list there appeared to be no reasonable excuse for the non-appointment of the most highly-graded applicant.

Mr T J. Kirk-Burnand, formerly well known in Dunedin, has been appointed conductor of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra now in the process of formation. The orchestra will have between 60 and 70 plavers. Mr Kirk-Burnand expects that the new orchestra will give 10 or 12 concerts during the year.