"SNOBBERY."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 253, 24 October 1936, Page 12

"SNOBBERY."

HIGH SCHOOL STATUS.

EXAMINATION FETISH. EX-TEACHER'S CRITICISM. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON,. Friday. In centres where there were both technical schools and high schools intellectual snobbery existed, said Mr. T. H. McCombs (Government, Lyttelton), an ex-technical school teacher, in the second reading debate on the Education Amendment Bill in the House of Representatives to-day. . Many parents, he said, felt that to maintain their social status they must send their children to a high school. That was most unfortunate for the youngsters themselves.' In his opinion the technical side of education should be encouraged more, and if children were to go on to secondary education it was much better for them to attend a school which combined both a high school and a technical school education, as was the case in Napier and Gisborne. Mr. McCombs asked the Minister to consider carefully the type of course the child was to follow if he raised the school leaving age, because the majority of children at present were following | courses which were not suitable to them in later life. It was desirable, he said, to start the education of the child at an early age. Many teachers who conducted kindergarten schools did not have the advantage of a proper training in kindergarten. methods. The result ' was that many of the children who went to the primary schools from kindergartens had to forget all they had. been taught in the kindergartens. He would be pleased, therefore, if something could be done to co-ordinate the work of the kindergartens and the State schools. Most Desirable. The raising of the school leaving age, which the Minister had said would be done, was a most denirable thing. Other countries had a higher school ■ leaving age than New Zealand, and the abolition of the' proficiency examination would make it possible for children to continue their education with less interference. One" of the difficulties was how to decide which type of school the child was to attend. He, had been told that the class of children which didi not go on to secondary education was the class that would go to technical schools. Examinations generally, said Mr. McCombs, were unreliable, and in this country they had become more of a fetish than in most, countries. An employer appeared to insist on an applicant for a position having passed the proficiency or the matriculation examination. There had been a case in the Railway Department. Apprentices were wanted for the metal workshop, and the Department selected the youtha with the highest academic qualifications. Examination Clutch.

The examination system- he continued, liad laid its clutch on education in New Zealand. It was the proficiency examination in the primary schools, and the senior free place and the matriculation examinations in the secondary schools. He knew of many cases of children with an excellent knowledge of the subject, whose temperament prevented them from doing justice to themselves on examination day. Because a child of average intelligence happened to he nervous on examination day, it was under the present system branded for the rest of its life. Children who had failed to gam the proficiency certificate, said Mr. McCombs, were refused employment in the railway service, though they were the type that made the best mechanics. . ••