TIME AT SCHOOL

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31836, 14 November 1968, Page 14

TIME AT SCHOOL

Principal’s Advice (N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, November 13. The university entrance examination is an unsatisfactory entry qualification for university for all but the most unusual pupils, says the principal of Pakuranga College (Mr E. F. Rive) in his annual report. Senior pupils, says Mr Rive/ should stay on longer at school for two main reasons: ‘

There is a “frightening" increase in the complexity of the world into which they are released. In most fields, the failure rate at university is much higher for students who have not had an uppersixth year.

“Unless a student possesses unusual powers either of intellect or of application, he is courting disaster to embark on a university course, especially in science or languages, with university entrance as his major entrance qualification,” says Mr Rive. But, Mr Rive says, while education is a right, the enjoyment of its opportunities entails responsibilities. “I do not intend to tolerate, in our sixth forms, students who lower the quality of work of a class, and impede the progress, and diminish the chances of success, of their classmates by the disruptive effect of irresponsible laziness and lack of co-opera-tion," he says.