EXAMINATION MISUSED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 28, 3 February 1939, Page 6

EXAMINATION MISUSED.

Jt is no new complaint that the standards of ; University "examinations are low, and "there is ( cpnsidera|jle,; authoritative opinion to support the contention of the Chancellor of the University of New Zealand, the Hon. J. A. Hanan, that more should be required of'-ipupils wishing 'to enter' the University. . The root of the trouble is that the entrance exairiinatioji; or ' matriculation, has been 1 misused. Originally intended to be solely the- test of fitness to ; 'enter the University, ■and to be taken after four years at a secondary school, the examination has become 'tib most valuable, if not the essential,, qualification for entry into business or commerce.. What is even .more important, since the average parent wants a child to become a wage-earner as soon as possible, and since, also, employers demand the earliest starting age in employment, matriculation is now generally taken in three years, not four. The ramifications are as manifold as they -are 'regret-table.-The standard of the entrance tost falls. Deprived of that invaluable fourth year, the child is less balanced,- less mature, and in the result a student of insufficient knowledge of books or of life goes on to the University. There, not only is lie unable to take the best from the new educational life, but he finds great difficulty "in reaching the standard demanded-, particularly in the first year. This casts too much teaching work,. ; on the staff and leaves too little time for other responsibilities—a situation which is accentuated in' a -University woefully The'misuse of matriculation examination-is not solely 'to blame for the ills of the University, but it certainly is ■ the. beginning of a vicious circle:—a circle which has 'been made all the more vicious. 1 with the passing of recent industrial i legislation. It (is difficult-to see how the '! proper function of the entrance examination can be restored until the Seriate does more. '- tllan mildly' suggest-that the standard should be higher.