SELECTING TEACHERS

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1639, 9 May 1925, Page 5

SELECTING TEACHERS

THE OTAE JUDGMENT.

POWERS OF •'COMMITTEES,i;

In order to avoid -the--occasional deadlock which loccurred on the 'mat- 4 ter of appointing teachers; Mr A. Burns put before Auckland Education

Board-a proposal that the Act be amI ended-do that. When .a deadlock occurs between the .committee <atld the Board, or the" Board and the senior inspector, about-an-appointment-,-the decision jsftßuJd; be made by the Director of Education. [Such' deadlocks were he said, occasional, hut they did occur ptntlmes, and there had been cases when slc knew later that if the matter had been referred to the Director he Mflftld have taken the view of the BoariU The Director, was an expert, and a. man in such a position would he fair and impartial. Mr R. Hoe moved an amendment that the Department be asked to alter the Act so that the, school committee concerned /would be the final judge in case of disagreement between the Board and the senior inspector. , The amendment was strongly supported by Mr Banks, but Mr Boddie, speaking .from school committee and educational experience, said he had come to the conclusion that in a case requiring nice balance of facts and all the data that could be got to enable a decision to be arrived at the committee was at a disadvantage compared with the Board. Messrs King and others emphasised the -point that at present the grading system was the ultimate deciding factor in a case where views differed, and no teacher would agree to doing away with the grading scheme. Mr Hoe pointed out that in theory / the law gave committees very large powers, but in practice these powers wer§" whittled down to nothing. Mr Banks; The clauses giving these powers should be wiped out. and replaced by one line fstating that the duties of committees are to look after the outhouses. Mr Hoe, proceeding, said that the ■committees of to-day were very different from those of 25 years ago. He had recently seen a committee at work Kaitaia that impressed him as a body of men who were capable of administering the affairs of the board or of a large business. The -committee members nowadays were those who had been educated and trained in our schools, and they were fully capable of ere'ditably exercising all the wide powers which the Act by letter conferred on them. It was surprising how much information they got, and how keenly they can- . vassed the suitability of various tea-: chers for their particular districts. ■He felt that the committees would exercise very discreetly any such power as was here proposed. Mr Burns remarked that he felt the Department might accept the terms of ith®. motion, but would be chary of Ysuch change as proposed by Mr Hoe. The Board rejected the amendment * by six votes to five, and carried the motion.