COMPLAINTS OF EXAMINATION

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27999, 20 June 1956, Page 8

COMPLAINTS OF EXAMINATION

Parisian Children Set Stiff Test (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, June 19. Too tough an examination for 1000 10 and 11-year-old Parisian children has caused such an uproar and such protests from parents and teachers that the Education Ministry has taken the unprecedented decision of allowing all children who failed to have a second try later this month, says the Paris correspondent of the “News Chronicle.” “Never had children of such ages been set such a stiff paper. Among other things, they were asked to explain the meaning of the word ‘abnegation’ and of the phrase, ‘She exercised her authority only with her heart.’ “Another question was based on a statement by Andre Gide that he had been fascinated by a marble caught in a hole. He had tried to extract it with his fingers, but failed. “He then let the nail of one of his fingers grow for a whole year in order to be able to reach the marble. When the period was up and the nail was long enough, he found he had lost interest in the marble and did nothing to extract it. “The children were asked what were the qualities Gide needed to extract the marble from the hole and what was his source of disappointment when he was able to do so but did not.”