WHAT IS ENTAILED

Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 55, 6 March 1916, Page 4

WHAT IS ENTAILED

EDUCATION EXAMINATIONS

HARD-WORKED OFFICIALS.

Few people, said the Hoiff J. A. Hanan, Minister for Education, lastweek, realised the. vast- amount of work which had to be undertaken by the officers of the Education Department in connection with teachers and Public Service examinations. The examinations in both these sections commenced this year on sth January, and concluded on the 19th. The number of candidates was as follows, the numbers fist the previous year being given in parentheses for the sake of comparison :—Teachers, C and D certificate, 1861 (1825); Public Servicn Senior, 864 (804). Of these 2725 candidates, 456 succeeded in obtaining a

complete pass in the examinations, 1180 obtained partial successs, 531 failed- to improve their status, and 458 were absent. The large number of absentees in the teachers' examinations was partly accounted lor. by the fact that many obtained tbeir-'certificates on the recommendation of the principals ot the Training Colleges.

For the examination eighty-one papers were set by sixty-five different examiners. This year the examiners included eighteen university . professors and lecturers, twenty school inspectors, and sixteen school teachers of outstanding ability.

The,work of preparing for the examination was carried out by the- staff of tile examination branch of the. Education Department, supplemented during the busiest part of Che year by half a rlojsen temporary men, and in all details the greatest care was exercised to provide against error of any kind, all entries and summations of marks being most carefully checked. In this work the Department had the assistance, of an expert operator, with a calculating machine, which puts through a marvellous amount of additions and other mechanical operations. It was to the.credit of the Department that, despite the fact that tin's year some of its most reliable and experienced officers had been absent on military duties, and although the examination did not conclude at the various centres till the 19th January, the candidates' papers were collected in Wellington and distributed to the examiners at their homes, the work marked, the marks entered up, added and checked, and the results made out in accordance with the various regulations and handed to the press by the 17th February in tho case of the Public Service senior' examination, and by the 26th February in the case of the teachers' examination.