DEFECTS OF EDUCATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 44, 22 February 1932, Page 6

DEFECTS OF EDUCATION.

THE EXAMINATION EVIL.

(By KIA KAHA.)

The article by "Pro Bono Publico" in the "Christchurcli Times" as quoted in the "Star" of February 17 is very illuminating to anyone who takes an interest in education, because it shows the effect of our present standardised system. To-day our system of education is purely utilitarian, and there is no attempt to educate for leisure, or to teach pupils (to quote "Pro Bono Publico") "the hundreds of little things that make the difference between comfort and discomfort, between contcntedness and discontent." The reason for this is not far to seek. The whole of the primary school is dominated by the proficiency examination and the secondary schools by matriculation. Children and teachers are forced to concentrate on the essential subjects for these examinations—on arithmetic and formal English, on the pure facts of history and geography, on spelling words of fearful length and fearsome sound, on the drawing of objects such as hats and suitcases, and the learning of so many lines of standard poetry. Music is tolerated or entirely banished; nature study, except in the lower classes of the primary school, is discouraged, and the appreciation of art or literature is taken only in so far as it will help to pass the final examination. In short, every subject or activity that adds a joy to living is banished unless it be helpful for the examination. Consequently, boys leave school with their heads full of more or less useful facts, and their minds of purposeless ideas, which arc of little use in the actual living of full life.

With the accrediting system, which was in vogue in the larger schools for a time, certain earnest teachers did try to educate the children for life, but the stiffening up of the proficiency examination has driven them back to the old system of cram, because the gaining of a proficiency certificate is so necessary under the present system. The remedy that "Pro Bono Publico" seeks, therefore, is to modify or abolish the fetish of a final standard examination as constituted under the present system, and so enable teachers and children to devote their attention to educating for life and not for examinations.

The time is ripe for a thorough overhaul of our educational system, not only in the matter of financial economy, but also in the matter of economy of effort. Our point of view in relation to the aim of education requires changing, and we should seriously consider whether the present traditional idea of a standardised and circumscribed education for utility should not give place to an education on broader and more natural principles, that will fit a child, not so much for a vocation, but for his leisure and his own time. Remove the dark cloud of the final examination from the schools, provide a freer and more natural syllabus for the children, and two such boys as mentioned by "Pro Bono Publico" would be impossible.