§ Mr. GOLDSTONEasked the President of the Board of Education what qualifications he requires in candidates for junior examinerships as ensuring that they shall be capable of doing, not only the immediate work of junior examiners, but still higher work; what proportion of those appointed are subsequently found capable of doing such higher work; and how many examiners have, in the last ten years, been allowed to resign either before or after their probationary period of two years?
Mr. PEASEI endeavour to get the very best men who are obtainable at the salaries and with the prospects which employment under the Board offers. A statement of the qualifications of examiners appointed since 1st April, 1900, is printed in Appendix 12 of the second published volume of the. Minutes of Evidence taken by the Royal Commission on the Civil Service [Cd. 6535, 1912]. I am not aware of any cases in which examiners whose appointment was confirmed after the expiry of the probationary period have been found permanently unfit for higher work. The number of examiners on the permanent establishment who have resigned in the last ten years is thirteen, and of these three resigned in the course of their probationary period. In the great majority of cases the resignation had nothing whatever to do with the examiner's competence or incompetence to do higher work, and in some cases they resigned to take up important and highly paid posts outside the office.
§ Mr. GOLDSTONEalso asked the President of the Board of Education what machinery exists in his office for the discovery and encouragement of clerks, both those receiving more than £250 per annum and those receiving less, who are likely to make good examiners; and whether such clerks must necessarily be recommended for promotion by officers to whom they would be senior if those recommendations were successful?
Mr. PEASEThe procedure in this matter is and must remain one of confi- 1769W dential consultation with heads of sections and other officers whose experience enable them to form a judgment. The answer to the second part of the question is in the negative, but I am satisfied that there is no reluctance whatever on the part of senior officers in the clerical establishment to recommend their juniors for promotion to the higher staff, and I may say that the reports of senior officers appear to me to deal most generously with the qualifications of their subordinates for promotion.