TEACHERS ALARMED

Taranaki Daily News, 9 May 1930, Page 15

TEACHERS ALARMED

VICTIMS OF DEGRADING.

OTAGO FIGURES. Dunedin, May ; During the past- four years there has . been •■much cconecm' among !Otagi teachers on. .. the subject of ... de-grading, er loss of marks, on the. annual ingwlist —particularly as it was found that the chief victims of -de-grading were teachers grown old in the service and on the point of retirement. The effect of these ' teachers has been to send them out under a crushing weight of depression and humilia-tion-r—the culmination and reward of their life’s work..

The latest issue of the grading list shows in Otago a greater number than ever of cases of degrading. So stirred have the teachers been over this that at both sessions of the recent annual meeting. of the Otago Educational Institute 0 it formed the main subject of discussion.

A committee was set up. to investigate thoroughly the amount of degrading during the past, four years throughout all the educational districts of New Zealand, and its findings are &et out as follow:—

(1) Taking an average of the four years, 1927-30, the Otago. .. teachers number 741 out of a total of 6422 in New Zealand, approximately 1 in 9. The numbe- of cases of de-grading in Otago for the four ; years was 34.0ut of a total of 148 for the Dominion, approximately 1 in 4. In short, Otago teachers number 1 in & of the. total number in the Dominion, and the cases of de-grading number I in 4, an arrest; big comparison. ~ ... ;’ (2) The,;74l.teachers .in Otago, lost 482 marks, ..,while ‘the remaining .5681 in; all the other provinces put

together lost 401, another arresting comparison. ' . 13) The average loss in the thirty'four eases of de-grading in Otago was fourteen marks, while in the remaining 114. eases of de-grading in the rest of New Zealand-, the average marks lost were 3.5. In Wanganui the only eases of de-grading throughout the four years averaged ;seven : marks, each... . It is contended on behalf of the teacher that the taking away of marks once rained by fii.Pi. should never he done except. jn casea of eerious dereliction ..of fiu.ty,..proved,doss.pf efficiency,.,or. sqnje furious. offence. If.. the weak teacher ie kept,-, marking-, time . while • hi& more efficient fellow . is, steadily climbing upwards the former will soon find hiyaself in his correct relative position. The conclusion is being froced upon teachers that any system of grading that can be so interpreted and applied as to produce annually among teachers —as has been produced in Otago during the last four years-r-sueh a amount of resentment as de-grading produces is a wrong thing, not only to the teacher who suffers. it, but, what is more important, to the children under him, who cannot but be reacted : upon by their teacher’s loss of self-respect, buoyancy and confidence in the justice of the system of appraisement and appointment under which he works.