EXAMINATIONS IN SCHOOLS

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21967, 16 December 1936, Page 12

EXAMINATIONS IN SCHOOLS

REFORM OF SYSTEM ADVOCATED

COMMENTS OF HEADMASTER

Reform of the school examination system was advocated by the headmaster of the Christchurch Boys' High School (Mr G. J. Lancaster) in his annual report on the year's work. Mr Lancaster claimed that schools would benefit considerably if parents and employers realised that the matriculation and the scholarship examination were not the only tests of practical ability or culture. "It would be a distinct advantage if the matriculation examination were in fact and not merely in name a university entrance examination," Mr Lancaster said. "To carry out its avowed purpose, the examination needs to be raised to a far higher standard and candidates who take it should be definitely aiming at a university career. If the school certificate with its wider range of subjects were freed from its connexion with the matriculation examination and given a still wider range, it would form, for the majority of boys a more desirable leaving certificate, and should be accepted as such by employers and the Public Service Departments. "The schools would benefit considerably if parents and employers could get rid of the notion that for a school, the matriculation or scholarship examination is the only test of practical ability or culture. "Meanwhile, in spite of the vast waste of time and energy on much useless study, many boys are deriving immense benefit from some of their studies and from the cultural activities like art, drama and music. With a suitable assembly hall and improved facilities the value of these activities would be improved considerably." Speaking generally of the school's work, Mr Lancaster said this year 1 had seen an unprecedented number of boys leaving to take up work. For the last four or five years, owing to the slump, the proportion of se'nior boys in the school had been far greater than in the previous 10 years. Now that economic conditions were apparently reviving there had been a rush to take immediate advantage of the improvement. Many of the younger boys, however, who had left would probably have benefited more by remaining at school. With the return of the five-year-olds to the primary schools and the raising of the leaving age the position might right itself in a year or two. Meanwhile the heaviest burden was on the boys now from 18 to 21 who had been stranded by the slump and now found it difficult to obtain employment because of the basic wage and the reluctance of employers to take boys ncarinc 21. "The remedy seems to be (a) to convince the parents that their boys will benefit in almost all cases by remaining at school until 16, and (b) to plan the training of these boys so that employers will prefer the older boy even at an increased wage," said Mr Lancaster. "To secure this training it will probably be necessary to subject to a drastic overhaul the school curriculum and with it the examination system. I am firmly convinced that numbers of boys would profit culturally and practically if much of the time and energy now devoted to Latin, French and mathematics were transferred to English, science and history and geography of mankind."