EDUCATION IN DOMINION

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22343, 5 March 1938, Page 23

EDUCATION IN DOMINION

EXAMINATION SYSTEM CRITICISED i TENDENCIES REVIEWED BY DR. C. E. BEEBY ■lftv- . (VaOM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) " •• LONDON, February 5. , A remarkable analysis . of modern educational tendencies in New Zealand has been contributed by Dr. C. E. Beeby, executive officer of the New Zealand Council for Educational Research, to the Year Book of Education, 1938. In this book all the public examination systems of the British Empire and the United States of America are surveyed and criticised by experts in charge of them. Dr. Beeby finds that schools and universities in the Dominion are facing the same problems which have troubled educationists in England and America, but in a more concentrated form. "If there are any general sociological principles governing the development of examinations in a modern democracy," he says, "they should show in a simpler and purer form in New "-'• Zealand than almost anywhere else." Dr. Beeby claims that in a democracy every examination tends to fall steadily in standard, despite every precaution. He makes a striking comparison between education and gold standard finance. An examination, he says, is a unit of currency which is off the gold standard. "Its facte value remains the same, *■"' but its real value tends steadily to fall, unless it is in some way pegged. . . . The name of an examination . . . stands firm to all the winds that blow, but its meaning, its value, drifts before any breeze." Both Methods Tried New Zealand has tried both the usual methods of maintaining stan- -■'■•: dards, fixing the amount of knowledge to be absorbed at the stage •of the examination, and fixing the percentage of candidates to be permitted' to pass it. When, in 1878, the primary schools were, divided into six "standards," each with its rigidly prescribed syllabus, an increase •in the number of passes was greeted with approval, until it was realised that the only im- ■. plication was that teachers and pupils , were becoming adept at "examiner- . ■■.. beating." Children with little ability were being painfully coached to,pass an examination by the simple memorisation of a set number of facts. "The Bruce-and-the-spider principle, strengthening though it may be to the candidate's character, can play havoc with the standard of an examination based on a rigid syllabus." The alternative method, that of con- ■\ trolling the percentage of candidates allowed to pass, has also proved deceptive. The University of New Zealand now arbitrarily fixes the percentage of passes for its matriculation examination, assuming a certain constancy in the distribution of ability amongst the candidates. But this theory has been upset whenever, for* any reason, the number of candidates has increased more rapidly than the total population, causing "inflation" of the examination currency unit. "Bourgeois Motive" Dr. Beeby state* that the fundamental cause of this perpetually dropping standard is the steady pressure of the bourgeois "getting-on" motive, which dominates secondary and higher eduiideation in New Zealand. It is "the %." passion of the many for the privileges of the few"—the ambition which "finds more satisfaction in certificates than in culture." The "purchasingpower" of the inflated examination has dropped. . ■ ■ Dr. Beeby's conclusions tally witn those already reached in America. "If it is true," he says, "that the standard of our examinations has fallen so heavily over the last few decades that they have largely lost their value as selective instruments, there are two possible lines of action before us. We might in the first place, take drastic steps to raise standards and decrease the number passes. . "We have seen that devices such as the laying down of a detailed syllabus, the raising of the pass work, or the passing of a fixed percentage of the candidates, do not necessarily safeguard examination standards. If the community is convinced that it wants only a certain proportion of children to receive higher education, or to enter the professions, it must fix the number of passes in the qualifying examination, not on a percentage of tne candidates sitting, but on a percentage of the total population. "Whether or not it is desirable, the fixing of such a rigid selective standard would not be politically possible in any democracy that had once experienced a more liberal system ot higher education. Nor do recent investigations into their reliability give us much faith in examinations as the basis of so complete and final selective process. Total Abandonment "The only other course open is to abandon altogether the selective function of the examination. This demands in the administrator almost as much courage as the rigid application of that function, for it involves the recognition of the very expensive principle that every child, irrespective of wealth or academic ability, has a right to higher education of a type best fitted to his needs. "Within such a system, the purpose of the examination is not to bar tne entrance to this field or that, but to guide the individual to make a free and intelligent choice between attractive alternatives. As Professor I. L. Kandel has said: 'The task which confronts education to-day is not one of separating the sheep from the goats, of dividing the population into those who have passed and those who have failed, or of setting up the curriculum as a hurdle to be overcome. . . . The success of an educational system can or should no longer be measured in terms of the numbers who pass or fail in examinations, but by the to which it has been able to discover the abilities and needs of pupils and students and has provided for them the type of education from which they are capable of profiting.' . "Such a philosophy lay behind the of the proficiency examination in New Zealand. "In short, examinations have failed to do what was asked of them. They cannot maintain academic standards, \ tor the maintenance of standards de.Vpends ultimately on the calibre and i training of the teachers, and on notn■Vinjrelse. Neither can they, in a democracy, maintain selective standards, fcr the passion of the many for tne education and privileges of the few undermines every attempt to raised fixed and final barriers. . "And, if these failings are insufficient, there is no lack of evidence that they are unreliable even in • , spheres where they might appear to > have a legitimate place. It remains to be seen how far examinations, •Chastened and humble,' can take up . their new function as agents of educational guidance, and how far a generation of teachers and pupils, brougnt up to regard them as natural enemies, can accept them as allies."