SCHOOL LEAVING CERTIFICATES

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22445, 5 July 1938, Page 7

SCHOOL LEAVING CERTIFICATES

RECOMMENDATIONS IN ENGLAND

SEVERAL CHANGES PROPOSED

Recommendations made by a committee representing educational .bodies in England on school leaving examinations are quoted in the latest number of the “New Zealand Education Gazette” as being of interest in New Zealand. The committee represented nssociations of secondary school principals and assistants and the Association of Education Committees, “and,” states the “Gazette,” “as in some respects, though not in all, the conditions relative to the examinations are similar in England and New Zealand, its conclusions will not be without interest to post-primary teachers in this country.” The recommendations suggest that the examination should not dominate the curriculum and that there should therefore be greater elasticity. A simple and straightforward test. in English, it is stated, should be qualifying and compulsory for all candidates. Practical tests in science subjects were desirable where they could be carried out under satisfactory conditions and with uniformity of standard. Art, music, domestic subjects, and handicrafts required pratical tests, and there should be oral tests in modern, languages. The abolition of the group system, whereby a candidate must pass in at least one subject in each of a number of groups was advocated. This system, the “Gazette” states, has been studiously avoided in framing the requirements for the school certificate in New Zealand. Other recommendations were;— All subjects should be regarded as of equal value. The examination paper should be simple and straightforward and the standard of marking high. The minimum qualification for a pass in the examination should be success in five subjects in addition to the compulsory English test. The standard of success in each subject in which the candidate has passed should be recorded on the certificate. The certificate should be a record of the examination performance only. With the abolition of the group system, “compensation”—misleading in a certificate of performance—is no longer necessary and should be abolished. At least 50 per cent, of the persons responsible for the setting of the papers and for the marking of the papers should have not less than five years’ experience in secondary school teaching within the 12 years immediately preceding the examination. The “Gazette” notes that the recommendation for recording the candidate’s standard of success has been criticised by several educationists.