17.
59148
28.
APPOINTMENTS TO HEADSHIPS AND SENIOR POSTS.
The Commissioners are of the opinion that the officers appointed to the Headships of those Government schools which provide secondary education should be graduates, chosen for their high qualifications and for ability, instead of solely on account of seniority. Merit should replace length of service as the criterion for promotion, and the qualifications of the officer appointed should be appropriate to secondary education. The Commissioners also consider that the special salaried posts of Senior Masters and Senior Mistresses should be filled by appointment according to qualifications and merit, not
They deprecate,
as being
according to seniority only
calculated in certain circumstances to lead to a lack of efficiency and consequently to a position the reverse of economic, an arrangement by which these posts may be allotted to unqualified officers because of their length of service. For example, the senior mistress of Central British School should be specially appointed on merit to that position, as she has under her control and supervision girls receiving a secondary education. Moreover these four Senior posts should only be filled if there are mistresses qualified and capable of filling them. The Commissioners desire especially to impress upon the Government this recommendation. The principle of selecting and earmarking a nucleus of officers for higher administrative command is just as important in the Education Department, as it is in other Government departments and other walks of life.
"TRAINING OF TEACHERS.
29
*
The Retrenchment Commission in its terms of reference
was advised by His Excellency the Governor to explore any means by which those Goverment officials who are recruited from England, paid on a sterling basis, eligible for leave and