ABOUT EXAMINATIONS

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 227, 19 June 1920, Page 9

ABOUT EXAMINATIONS

ENTERING THE UNIVERSITY

THE ACCREDITING SYSTEM

Mr. J. H. Kirk moved at yesterday's meeting of tho Council of Education:—

That this council strongly urge that tho Senate of the ' University of New Zealand accept as an equivalent to matriculation the higher leaving certificate issued by tho Education Department; that a committee of this council wait upon the

Senate at a time to be' arranged to ■urge the adoption of this motion. That this council urges the wider adoption of a system of accrediting instead of tho system of external examination.

Mr. Kirk said that while ho was in England, as officer in charge of the Expeditionary Force education 6ystem, the English universities had permitted New Zealand soldiers to join the colleges and tako university degrees without having first passed the matriculation examination.' If Oxford and Cambridge could do that,- New Zealand need not fear to set aside tho examinations. The important thing tos that a student should .be capable of taking advantage of tho university course.

Mr. T. U. Wells remarked that 6ome of the New Zealand professors were anxious to accredit their own students for degrees, but they objected to the application of the. same principle lower down in the education system. Dr. Anderson (Director of Education) said that the University Senate ' was jealous o? its own privileges and had insisted in the post that it must maintain control of its examinations. It contained, moreover, a conservative element that believed still in the virtues of the examination. Tho examination seemed to be required for competitive! purposes, but it -was not a good test of qualification. Its inherent defect was its capacity for favouring a particular course' of instruction or method of teaohing. The rule in. Britain now was that external examinations should riot be used_ for purposes of. qualification. Matriculation was purely, a qualifying. examination. Its sole'purpose was to ascertain if the student v/as qualified to- take advantage of the -university course, and it ought not to bo used for any other purpose. It should not be treated as a substitute for the senior civil service examination or /anything of that kind. He believed that the . matriculation examination could with advantage be.swept away altogether in favour of the accrediting of secondary : school. pupils by head teachers.

Mr.'Kirk stated that he wished to see entrance to the university made easy. Many men who could not possibly pass the matriculation examination had tho mental capacity to tako advantage of the university course. Men of this kind were playing an important part in the life of the Dominion, and it was not reasonable or _ desirable to exclude them from the university.

The motions were adopted by the council.