Better education awareness ‘vital’

Press, 10 July 1985, Page 22

Better education awareness ‘vital’

PA Wellington The public needs to be better informed about the sixth form certificate, said the Minister of Education, Mr Marshall. A general lack of understanding about the certificate existed outside the school community, he said in an address to the annual conference of the Principals’ Advisory Committee in Nelson. It was vital that principals were committed to the change and that students, staff, parents, and the wider community were all aware of that, Mr Marshall said. But he said he was concerned that if University

Entrance or its equivalent were put in Form 7, students might find the attraction of a prestige-carry-ing qualification too strong to resist and return just to gain it. “We must not attract resources away from other areas of the secondary school because of the additional demands which will follow from greater numbers of students remaining at school for a year in Form 7,” he said. Mr Marshall warned that to do little more than move the existing problem one level up the secondary school form structure would be tragic.