TEACHERS’ APPOINTMENTS

Waikato Times, Volume 92, Issue 14258, 8 January 1920, Page 5

TEACHERS’ APPOINTMENTS

INJUSTICE CHARGE REFUTED. GRADING REMOVED FRICTION. THE POSITION IN AUCKLAND. (Special to Times.) AUCKLAND, Wednesday. At the New Zealand Educational Conference in Wellington one of the delegates complained; with sbme bitterness, against what he termed “the intolerable injustice perpetrated by education boards in the’appointment of teachers," contending that the four largest boards had made watertight compartments of their districts. The Hon. G. J. Garland, who is a member of the Auckland Board, In commenting on this statement, declared that as far as he knew there were no watertight compartments in the Education Board of the Auckland district. The highest teacher on the graded list was appointed to the, position, except in the case of special appointments, such as apointrnents to the , training college and normal school, and at one time when an advisory inspector was appointed. “The Act," he pointed out, “compels boards to consult committees, but it docs not compel them to follow the advice of the committees. Very little friction lias occurred between the Auckland Board and the committees for a long time past. That friction disappeared when the Auckland Board’s grading scheme, which gave marks for efficiency to each teacher, was in full swing." “This brings me,” said Mr Garland, “to the question of the grading o. teachers. The present system, which lias been adopted and applied to the schools by the Education Department in Wellington, is a system of grading teachers upon their salaries, and not upon the efficiency of their teaching. I heartily concur with a resolution that was passed at the conference, declaring that no system of grading teachers could be satisfactory unless efficiency and service alontf wcrc the determining factors. Make your teachers contented with their lot and you will get efficient work done in the public schools, ana the children will be happy. And that is the great consummation to be desirstl.”