REFORM IN SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION IN NEW SOUTH WALES: THE ROLE OF THE INSPECTOR
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb009715 |
| Published date | 01 February 1974 |
| Pages | 95-111 |
| Date | 01 February 1974 |
| Author | N.M. LOGAN |
| Subject Matter | Education |
THE
JOURNAL
OF
EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION
VOLUME
XII,
NUMBER
2
OCTOBER, 1974
REFORM IN SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
IN NEW SOUTH WALES:
THE ROLE OF THE INSPECTOR
N.M.
LOGAN
Despite general agreement amongst educators, both in Australia and
other countries, that an authoritarian inspection system, whatever its
virtues, has outlived some of its original purpose, reformist demands in this
aspect of school administration have been slow to be met. In N.S.W.
inspectors of schools have advanced proposals for change and the
Department of Education has implemented some of these, together with
other recommendations from its own committee of inquiry into the
inspectorial system. The result has been a further liberalization of school
inspection, although some traditional aspects remain. Arising out of the
reforms are questions about whether inspections are necessary, how
accountability and promotion are to be managed if they are not, and
whether inspectors are justified in feeling insecure. The view is held that
the growing professionalism of teachers will assist them to become more
accountable directly to those they serve, but that regional education
officers will still perform indispensable functions aimed at improving the
educational quality of schools.
INTRODUCTION
It is almost a decade since Mr. Percy Wilson1 attended a seminar on
educational administration arranged by Australian State Education
Departments, a decade marked by increasing reformist demands on
education, greater militancy of teacher organizations, and by further growth
in the rate of social change towards what its protagonists call "freedom" but
which the critics insist is "permissiveness". To some extent education has
been caught up in the winds of change, and administrators, eagerly or
reluctantly, have set about re-writing the conditions of work and re-thinking
the objectives of those who supervise and superintend the schools of the
State.
The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature of the changing role of
the inspector of schools and the degree to which reformist demands have
been met. Some reasons will be advanced for the changes which have been
made, whilst it is hoped that a summary and appraisal of current plans for
re-organizing the inspection of schools and teachers would be of interest both
to those who observe from outside the system as well as to those who either
MR. LOGAN, B.A., Litt.B. (U.N.E.), is an Inspector of Schools with the New South
Wales Department of Education.
He is
author of
articles
on education, which reflects his
experience
as
teacher, principal and inspector, and which include
analyses
of philosophy,
aims,
and teacher-education.
96
Journal
of
Educational
Administration
plan reforms or experience them. An opinion will be expressed on what the
future might hold for the inspector of schools.
INSPECTORS AND INSPECTION
Mr Percy Wilson, Senior Chief Inspector of Schools in England and Wales,
wrote during his visit to Australia in 1963,
There are strong affinities and similarities between Her Majesty's
Inspectors and the (Australian) Inspectors of Schools . .. but there is one
important difference between them. The Australian Inspector spends
much of his time assessing teachers while the H.M.I. is more of a
professional consultant to local authorities and to schools.2
The pattern of activity of the school inspector in N.S.W. has remained to a
considerable degree unchanged since the changes initiated about the
commencement of the century. It is true that over the years the inspector's
growth in humanity and scholarship has paralleled the transition of the school
from an instructional centre to a partly educational institution, but the
average teacher of 1954 probably stood almost as much in awe of the district
inspector as did his counterpart before William Wilkins a century earlier. The
mild reforms which were initiated appear to have been produced only partly
as a result of the agitation of teachers themselves, for whilst most changes
have come from the Department "old habits and inherited procedures
continue long after the conditions for which they were originally established
have ceased to exist".3 These conditions are well known and need little
repetition. Primitive schools and unskilled teachers characterised the early
days of the colony as first religious and then educational supervisors
attempted to raise "standards" whilst imposing a fixed and ordered pattern of
instruction on what was a shabby and rather dismal educational scene.
By the end of the nineteenth century, the district inspectors in N.S.W.
were a well established part of the strongly centralised system of public
instruction, marked not only by the rating of the teachers and the testing of
the pupils, (which tasks inspectors pursued with vigour and occasionally, one
suspects, with an unsaintly relish) but also by a common curriculum, set
standards, direct accountability to the employing authority and governance
by regulation. Typical of statements about what was required of the district
inspector as recently as 1962 is the following from Mr. O. R. Jones, a past
Director of Primary Education in New South Wales:
He needs to know and to understand in all its implications the
departmental outlook as to what is an efficient school and as to who is an
efficient principle or teacher in a school.4
After knowing the Department's viewpoint, the inspector's "most
important function is to establish himself as an examiner"5, although he
should be an impartial, fair and objective one. The success of the advisory
function, says Jones, will depend on the skill the inspector shows in assessing
schools and teachers. Although the central authority has required inspectors
to do more than merely safeguard the public purse by ensuring that schools
and teachers meet minimum requirements at least, in practice the district
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