THE EXAMINATION “EVIL”

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 301, 16 September 1936, Page 8

THE EXAMINATION “EVIL”

Mr. Fraser may take credit to himself for being the first Minister of Education in New Zealand to take a definite stand against the evils 'of the examination system. His remarks at Auckland suggest the hope that education reform is to be approached from a new angle; that the design of the new structure will be a complete answer to the question: What is the true purpose of education? Certainly, it is not to pass examinations. Mr. Fraser says one reform all sensible educators will support is the abolition of the proficiency examination, the qualifying test of primary school children for promotion to the secondary school stage. “Children,” he says, “should not be stuffed with information as their mothers stuff chickens for the table.” The Minister will appreciate, of course, the corollary that if the proficiency examination is bad from this point'of view, all the other examinations which at present mark the successive hurdles of a citizen’s educational career are bad for the same reason. The 'eradication of at least the worst evils of the examination system, considered from the primary school to the University, presents, however, problems of serious difficulty. These cannot be solved satisfactorily by the simple process of abolishing the present system. There should be no question of abandoning the principle of qualifying tests, otherwise the product of the schools and university colleges will tend to an average' of mediocrity. It is not the test itself which is at issue, but the form of it. A form of examination which an indifferent student may pass if he is lucky, but which a highly-deserving candidate may fail in because he lacks the examination temperament, must be inherently bad. It can hardly be called a test of real intelligence or degree of culture. At the best it can only be described as a measurement of an individual’s capacity for memorising information. What is required is a new standard and system of measurement. Mr. Fraser hitherto has walked warily in his new field as Minister of Education. If he examines the examination problem and the advice of his counsellors in this connection with similar caution, he may reach a solution that will have far-reaching effects on the nation’s citizenship.