MODIFIED START

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 237, 6 October 1944, Page 3

MODIFIED START

EXAMINATION CHANGE ACCREDITING THIS YEAR As a result of far-reaching changes in the examination system for senior boys and girls in the secondary schools and the introduction of accrediting for the first time this year, there is likely to be a considerable reduction in the total of those sitting for the University entrance examination in December. The former so-called matriculation examination is being superseded, and for the first time many who would have been candidates for this test will now be accredited with passes from the principal schools. Others will have the opportunity to sit for the new University entrance examination. 1 , In all cases a four-year secondary school course must have been completed before the granting of an accredited pass or before permission is given to sit for the examination test. The Rev. A. J. Greenwood, supervisor for the University external examinations, said to-day that the arrangements for the change appeared to be working smoothly. He expected a substantial fall in the total of those who would present themselves as candidates for the new University entrance examination. Last year 1260 candidates sat for the old entrance examination in Auckland. The headmasters of two of the grammar schools in' Auckland said that accrediting this year would be in a modified form and the new system would not come into full operation until next year. The number to be accredited this year would therefore be much smaller than could be expected in 1945. Higher Stand 1 the Aim

"We are accrediting only a handful," said one headmaster. "We are starting very conservatively," said another. "A great deal depends on the way in which accrediting operates in the first few years, and my fixed determination is that the standard for University entrance shall go up, not down. It has been too low in the past. The result has been that many have got through matriculation who were not well enough prepared for it, and that is why we have been hearing complaints from the TT niversity."

Under the new system candidates for accrediting or the University entrance examinati .1 will be boys and girls who have shown in the previous year that they have attained the higher leaving certificate standard.

Seddon Memorial Technical College was stated to be less affected by the change than the grammar schools because it was not an accrediting school and did not desire to become one. It was explained that only a limited number of boys at the college intended to enter upon University courses later, these being students in engineering and science, and they would qualify by sitting for the new University entrance examination. The college preferred to be free from the control over its courses through University liaison officers which it would have to accept it sought the right to accredit its stud nts. It was thus retaining its freedom to plan its own development along the lines which appeared to it to b~ best.