English As Exam Subject Discussed

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32295, 13 May 1970, Page 18

English As Exam Subject Discussed

Support was given to the recent abolition of English as a compulsory school certificate examination subject and a suggestion was made that more emphasis be given to internal school examinations, when delegates met at . yesterday’s conference in Christchurch of the southern section of the Secondary School Boards’ Association.

A remit asking the conference to condemn the Department of Education’s action on the School Certificate examination in English, proposed by the Waitaki High School Board, was defeated after Mr A. Sutherland told of ais board's concern that English seemed to have been reduced to a “second-class language. ” A spokesman for the Department of Education told

the conference that the new regulations still meant that every candidate had to undertake four hours of English study a week. “But more flexibility is now possible to adapt to the special needs of some children; the great majority of pupils will be untouched by the new regulations, but a significant minority may look forward to a course of study more relevant to their needs in the subject,” he said. Modern society had a duty

to capitalise on the talents of each of its members and the new English regulations would help to do this. Professor H. E. Field (Christchurch Girls’ High Schoo! Board) said.

Mrs E. M. Clarkson (Southland High School Board) said that too many lay people 1 were stating unqualified con- 1 cern over the department’s 1 moves on the English ques- 1 tion. “I welcome the move; edu-' cation is teaching and learn- 1 ing, not examination,” she said.

Criticisms of the external examination system and a request that a review should be made were proposed by the Waitaki High School Board, but after discussion this remit was altered by an amendment proposed by Professor Field in which the conference supported the view that examining at secondary level take an increasingly internal form. The district senior inspector of secondary schools (Mr F N. Wylde) said that he did not know whether the public w’as ready to accept the internal secondary school assessment that was recently recommended by the Post-Primary Teachers’ Association. Greater emphasis needed to be placed on the school but such steps should not completely disregard the public! | sector, Professor Field said.