Appointing Principals

Dave McPherson (March 7), former chairman of the Oxford Area School Board of Trustees, says in respect of principal appointments that previously the Ministry of Education had chosen whom it deemed to be the best person for the job.

I think you will find that the Ministry of Education has probably never made such appointments since its establishment in 1989. Before that, in most cases, primary principals were appointed by the local education boards — abolished under Tomorrow’s Schools — and secondary principals by their boards of governors — abolished in 1989.

The former Department of Education district senior inspectors of schools, or a member of their teams of inspectors, may have been involved in advisory or regulatory capacities, but it did not make the final appointments. There may have been a few exceptions in the case of schools set up to meet special needs.

DON HUTTON Bishopdale

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