TOO DIFFICULT?

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 288, 5 December 1929, Page 11

TOO DIFFICULT?

MATRICULATION PAPER. BEYOND PUPILS' BEACH. PARENTS AND TEACHERS ANXIOUS (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) WANGANUI, this day. There is considerable indignation in Wanganui among parents and teachers of candidates for the matriculation examination regarding the nature of the chemistry paper set for yesterday. Those competent to speak with authority on the matter say emphatically that the matriculation paper would be a -fair test for a B.Sc. examination, but in some sections was well beyond reach of pupils after a three-year course. This is emphasised by the fact that at the examination yesterday a number of the candidates, after attempting to do the paper, abandoned it. Others plodded on till the end of the allotted time. Teachers, whose pupils during the last two years have obtained marks from 18 per cent to 20 per qent above the New Zealand average, have no hesitation in saying that such a difficult paper should not have been set. A number of parents, who have to bear the expense of keeping their children at secondary schools until they matriculate, are also very concerned about the paper, fearing that it may mean the difference between success and failure in the examination. The results; will be awaited with interest, and'judging by present comment, parents will have a lot to say to the Minister of Education at a later date. With regard to the position in Auckland, Mr. H. J. D. Mahon, headmaster of the Auckland Grammar School, is of the opinion that the standard of the matriculation examination, has in the past been, if anything, too low, and that some. stiffening up would do no harm. The average boy, who has done three years at a secondary school, he has found, is, in general, able to pass the test. The view held f by Auckland masters is that the particular paper— chemistry—objected to in Wanganui, is a welcome change to the usual paper set. It is one which would discourage "cram" methods for examinations, as it deals to a large extent with practical work done in the school laboratories.

It is stated specifically in the University Calendar —and the matriculation is a university examination—that "the matriculation examination will represent the reasonable result of four years' training in a secondary school."