TEACHERS AT BARRIER OF PROMOTION

Wanganui Chronicle, 2 October 1947, Page 6

TEACHERS AT BARRIER OF PROMOTION

SCHEME TO ASSIST THEM (P.A.) Christchurch, Oct. 1. A scheme to remov e the barriers faced by teachers when they reach the maximum grading marks in any group and are unable to qualify for better marks because they must first enter higher positions in the service, will be placed before the Minister of Education (Mr Mason) about the end of this month. Mr. G. H. Mitchell, of Christchurch, president of the New Zealand Educational Institute, said this evening that the new plan provided for an increase in marks to be given each year, on a fixed scale according to efficiency. Subject to the standard oft experience being maintained, teachers’ grading would continue throughout the service without them having to change to new positions. This would tend toward more stability in school staffs as grading for the present was biennial, a period covered this year and next. It had been proposed that the new scheme if anoroved should begin in 1948 with grading at present in force. The new scheme was being supplied in detail to teachers and after their comments had been received it would be submitted to the Minister for favourable consideration. Mr. Mitchell said that the present system was based on a method of grouping according to salary- During recent years it had proved unsatisfactory because once teachers had reached their maximum in any group, congestion arose through positions not being available in the next. The acute housing shortage had also influenced teachers not to change their schools often. If the present scheme were allowed to remain in operation, its value as a promotion index, already seriously undermined, would disappear completely, Mr. Mitchell said. The position had become so serious that officers of the institute and of the Education Department had conferred to secure a scheme under which teachers could continue to make progress J e " gardless of the salary group they were in. If the proposals were approved, translation to a new grading scheme would be made in April, 1948, with the relative position of every teacher exactly the same as announced in the latest grading list.