CHANGING WORLD

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 190, 10 May 1934, Page 8

CHANGING WORLD

Education’s Future DEFINITE AIM LACKING Examination Drawbacks A criticism of the external examination system was made yesterday by Mr. L. J. Wild, M.A., B.Sc., principal of Feilding Agricultural High School, and a member of the Senate of the University of New Zealand, when speaking against the school certificate recently introduced for secondary schools by the Department of Education at the combined meeting of delegates to the conferences of the New Zealand Technical School Teachers’ Association and the New Zealand Secondary Schools’ Association. Mr. Wild said that the university liked examinations because they were a source of revenue. Teachers liked examinations because they enabled them to do less real teaching. Mere memorising was not real teaching. Correspondence schools, which had grown up like mushrooms, liked examinations because without them they would nor exist.

Examinations had certain advantages. They set a standard of attainment.* That might be a good standard. Mr. Wild asked his hearers whether they would deny the fact, however, that external examinations gave pupils satisfaction with a percentage pass of about 50 and that they discredited 100 per cent, accuracy. The only thing worth striving for, he said, was surely absolute accuracy. It was also maintained that examinations were set to maintain a uniformity of attainment in the various schools, and to encourage pupils to work. But did they do it? he asked. Examinations were not the only inducement to work. The disadvantages of examinations had often been elaborated, and he was not going to dwell on them. In brief they meant a stereotyped syllabus, stereotyped methods, they restricted initiative, narrowed the field of inquiry and restrained the natural curiosity of the pupils. Probably people in every age had thought that they lived in a very special period, he said. The present age could claim that. The changes in this century had been revolutionary. The rate of chtinge in the last 30 years had beeh greater than in any other 30 years in the history of this globe. They were witnessing political revolutions of a kind that bad no precedent in history. Aim of Education.

He submitted that the time had come when they should not fiddle with little bits of examinations, but consider what should be the aim of education in this changing world. Teachers fondly imagined that they were training the leaders of to-morrow. But the leaders were rising in spite of them. Teachers could get no help from the outside world. As the Government maintained the schools the schools must maintain what the Government stood for. They would get no help from politicians in any forward move. They would get no help from the business man or the university professor. They were trying to live for two worlds, and were failing in both endeavours. Mr. Wild went on to criticise the subjects set for examinations, dealing In detail with arithmetic, writing, history, science, and languages. In history they had to maintain what the Government stood for. Surely there was something bigger in the world to-day than their own Empire, so why should history study be confined to English history? If they were going to have peace in the world how were they going to get it, he asked, without knowing the history of other countries? What was wanted was an aim for education. At the present time they seemed to be trying to provide for two worlds, the one to come and the one that was present. It was time to make a complete overhaul of-education, and the first thing was to determine what was to be its aim. Stage, Screen, and Press. Mr. Wild went on to speak of factors in the modern world which might be utilised much more in education—the screen, radio, and the Press. The average newspaper, he said, provided for about two hours’ work a day. Taking such a newspaper as “The Dominion.” it was found that the editorial provided a lesson in logic. It also provided lessons in history, geography, economies, and English from day to day. It was known, he said, that there was no need for examinations so far as providing a stimulus for work went. Pupils would work if they were given the opportunity. He objected to the proposed school certificate, and said that personally he was convinced that the university should not have anything to do with the examination of school pupils. He was afraid that the school certificate would come to be regarded as the competency certificate was now regarded in relation to proficiency—as something inferior to the entrance examination. He suggested that the record cards of the school should take its place. They should teach the public to place reliance on the teacher’s report.