SYSTEM OF MARKING

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 135, 4 March 1929, Page 12

SYSTEM OF MARKING

MATRICULATION METHODS ATTACKED. BY HEAD.- ./■ . -. MASTER ■.■ .. -’ ;' * * rt.-. By Telegraphs—Press Association. Thames, March 11 --J In the course of . lengthy letters to - the Thames “Star,” jn regard to a -■ statement concerning the matriculation marking, Mr. IV. H. Hoult, headmaster of the Thames High School, says : “The . matriculation examination to-day, in its unwieldiness,; cannot compare svell-;. ■with that of 25 years ago.’ The num-. ■ bers of hopeful candidates has vastly’, increased. An English examiner and- 1 assistants have to mark, I believe,' - some 4000 papers in three weeks. Only, a very few minutes can possibly be:, given to the candidates’ two and three-.-hour English papers-r-the culmination', of three or. four years’ work at secom dary schools. “Teachers generally criticise most, violently the marking of English arid? ■ French papers. It is here, undoubtedly, that, the queerest results are obtained. Mathematics,.science, history and so on - can be more definite, as the item's can be right or wrong. The present break- . neck system cannot pretend to do justice to such elusive things as languages. Now for a word or two on the examining personnel. 'So far as I understand it, at the head of a paper one generally reads, ‘Examiners: Professor -•—and assistants.’ - “From evidence gathered from the. testimonials from young teachers applying for positions at this school, I am, I believe, on safe ground when I state that the ‘assistants’ are frequently students at the universities.. Furthermore, the same testimonials, in some cases, will show that these young folk have never had any practical teaching experience. I here hasten to state that I do not wish to challenge the honesty of any assistants, nor do I suspect for a moment that any assistants have ever favoured any special . candidate or school. I do, in a l seriousness, question the ability of such students, who lir.ve never had any teaching experience, to sit in judgment on, sav, an English or French, composition. Directions can be given them carefully, but even then the risks o. uneven marking are appalling.