METAPHORICAL.

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

METAPHORICAL.

SHEDDING A TEAR.

PROFICIENCY ABOLITION. ANTI-EXAMINATION COMPLEX. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Friday. Declaring tliat he did not altogether approve of the abolition of the proficiency examination, but that he was not wholeheartedly against it, Mr. H. E. Herring (Government, Mid-Canter-bury), who, like Mr. McCombs, an earlier speaker, was also a technical school teacher, said he had shed a metaphorical tear at the exit of the proficiency test. The Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr. Parry: You are for it or against it. Mr. Herring: Exactly, sir. (Laughter.) The Minister of Education, Mr. Eraser: I hope it is only a metaphorical tear. Mr. Herring said tnere ihad been an anti-examination complex developed of late years. .He was not entirely in favour of the examination system. They should retain some target; if they had nothing to aim at they would have nothing- to hit. He thought the accrediting of the matriculation examination was not quite in accordance with the fitness of things. He emphasised the need for caring for the health of the children. "I am not a first-class physical specimen myself," said Mr. Herring. "I am what is known as a London weed —something that is hard to kill. I don't know much about New Zealand weeds, but I think we are on the way to establishing a fairly good crop of New Zealand weeds. If it is largely true that we have at present a C 3 population, I fear that the next generation will be C 4." Mr. Herring said that the malnutrition figures for the Dominion schools were 5.64 per cent, and there was a strong possibility that the population growing up would be regarded as New Zealand weeds. He urged that proper attention should be given to. physical instruction in schools. The need for correcting such common complaints among children as flat feet and spinal curvature, which was due to unsuitable desks in schools, was stressed by Mr. Herring. He complained about the lack of adequate lighting in classrooms and the weight of books that pupils had to carry to and from home. Adequate locker space should be provided in the schools for the convenience of the children. When he saw a fruit case used as the alternative to a desk he thought it necessary that the attention of the authorities should be directed to the fact. He would also like to see schools more liberally provided with pictures. The walls were too bare in most schools.