OUR TEACHERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1499, 7 August 1880, Page 22

OUR TEACHERS.

If teachers in Otago are not of the best, they ought to be so, for sufficient care is exercised in their selection. In the first place, there is the examination, and there is, reason to believe that it is fairly searching. But once admitted, a teacher, and the difficulty has only begun. A' Bchool to teach in has then to be found. The Education Board has proved itself fertile in expedients to secure for each situation the best possible applicant; indeed, so exhaustive a sifting process is gone through that the only wonder seems how complaints ever can arise, as arise they sometimes do. The first thing noticeable is that the Education Board appears to have no trust in its officers. The inspectors, although it must be admitted that they have the most intimate acquaintance with the teachers personally, are not allowed to choose from amongst a number of applicants those whose names shall go before the committee as qualified for the situation. There appears to be a vague fear that the inspectors may have favourites, or even that they may incline to a Victorian candidate in preference to all others. This kind of distrust may or may not be wise, but the members of the Board do not stop there. They place no greater faith in their Secretary ia this to them wonderfnlly important matter; and more than that, they look with suspicion even on one another. Thus no committee consisting of a few only of the members of the Board is thought competent or honest enough to make the selection. But twice a month the whole of the nine gentlemen who form the Board meet solemnly to weigh the merits of the candidates, it may be, for a sewing mistress-ship, or, at greatest, a first assistantship; for rarely indeed is a head mastership, at any rate in any important school, vacant. Having then picked out two or three of the half-dozen who may have applied, the names are Bent down to the school committee, accompanied by such information as the Board's Secretary can give about eaoh ; and the seven gentlemen who in turn form the school committee in all solemnity go through a further process of " waling," as the Scotticism has it, till at last the creme de la creme is supposed to be secured. Sometimes school committees refuse to elect from the Board's elect; and in that case new applications are invited, and the entire process repeated. If they do accept one of the candidates, they have not the power of appointment, for they must submit the name to the Board, which alone has the supreme power. Now it seems to us thatthereis altogether too muchred-tape and roundabout fuss over this very simple matter of the appointment of a schoolmaster. Surely some simpler method could be adopted that would be quite as satisfactory, whilst less expensive also; for the most recent decision of the Board, that the Appointments Committee shall meet twice a month, will involve some outlay. We certainly think, as' things aie, that the precautions to attain the acme of perfection in all appointments are a great deal too close an approach > in their severity to the reductio ad absurdum, and that the end could be attained with less labour, less expense, and less delay.