Accrediting Discussed By Riccarton H.S. Board

Press, Volume C, Issue 29671, 15 November 1961, Page 17

Accrediting Discussed By Riccarton H.S. Board

The university entrance examination was taken to be a qualification of a general education, not fitted for the requiremento cf a university, the chairman of the board of governors of the Riccarton High School (Professor H. R. Gray) said at a meeting of the board yesterday. The board was discussing the system cf accrediting. The headmaster (Mr A. X Goinaford) said that 13 of the 30 candMatas for toe

examination at the school bad been accredited. Professor Grey said that certain persons were accredited and were thus eligible to enter a university, but they might not be idee&y suited to a university. He said that examining the 3000 students, or so who entered a university each year did not seem impossible to achieve.

Professor S. R. Siemon said that he estimated that 20 per cent, ot the students who came to university had not had encmtfi experience in examinations like school certificate. Some came to university without passing school certificate.

"I feel that the university entrance examination has nothing to do with anyone else except the university.

MDMfiA Wxt tite adkooi pares the pupils for the onssninetiosk” be ssM. "In my opinion a univentoy has the sole riglhit to detsnnine Ito aaembership.” fk'ofeosor Stanton osM that OR pupils should bo exposed to a brood curriculum up to the sixth to The prownt !I system of uatveraHy safirance exaisrinotion dominated the aebool currteuMun. "There to a need tor some school in a city the stse of Christchurch wi» a high academic education,” -rid Mr A. 8. Murray. "We are getting away from that” Employers. by demanding that persons they ssngdoyed bod university entrance crested a situation that was using tile examination for a purpose It should not be used for, said Professor Siemon. Mr Geinafcrd ssid that the university entrance examination was not regarded by the staff as fitting a pupil to go to university. "We tell pupils that it would be foolhardy to assume that they could.” he arid.

He said that there was no legal connexion between university entrance and school certificate. A pupil did not have to have school certificate before he sat or was accredited university entrance. This year was the first time when university entrance could be obtained in five subjects instead of in four as a higher Qualification he said. Pupils who wore accredited In four subjects and wished to gain the examination In five had to sit the five subjects. None of his pupils who had been accredited In four had offered to sit the examination to gain a higher hiWirfnrmfror wm cMittoux about saying that a pupil would not make a suitable university student. "Inevitably ovary rule is going to exclude atone parson who might conceivably pass, but the needs of the other students and the ttWMMWaity had to be considered," said Professor Gray. "The question is whether th* system of accrediting win give the optimum result" "Real Examtaotioa” He said that he guessed that 40 par cent of his firstrear students would fall. The reel university entrance

examination was the flrstyear examinations, be said. Professor Stamen said that the 'ffect on the university student who continually failed could be serious, and that there wee the social implication of all th* best people intellectually going to a university. This could mean that trades like that of construction would no longer have the best men to train as foremen and might have to drew on the pool of university graduates, as had happened in the United States. In earlier days, he said, a carpenter who started work when 18 had considerable practical experience by the time he wee 21. "Considerations like that are perhaps more serious be said.