Canty employers against U.E. shift

Press, 22 September 1983, Page 4

Canty employers against U.E. shift

Moves by secondary school teachers to have the University Entrance examination transferred to the seventh form have disappointed the Canterbury Employers’ Association. The association’s president, Mr Brian Shackel, told the Christchurch Businessmen’s Club that it would be a retrograde step because no student would be able to enter university with less than five years secondary education. Employers understood the U.E. qualification as “some measure of the potential of an employee.” he said, and

much work would need to be done to ensure that a replacement for it like the Sixth Form Certificate had the same credibility. Employers were concerned not only for pupils who were academically able but also for the rest. . “As things stand, merely to remove the U.E. examination or the accrediting procedures to the seventh form, would mean that those who leave at the end of the sixth form in the future will not have a qualification that is as relevant to employers,” Mr Sijackel said.