WHY SHOULD IT BE POSTPONED?

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 136, 5 December 1918, Page 8

WHY SHOULD IT BE POSTPONED?

JUNIOR NATIONAL SCHOLARSHIP EXAMINATION. : TO THH EDITOR. ' Sir, —I -was astounded to see, in thei columns of jour paper to-night- the an-j "nouncemenfc that the Health ■ Department had again prohibited the holding of the Junior' National Scholarship examination fixed for the 17th and 18th inst. What' on earth is tho matter with the Health nuiborMeß? They have allowed tea rooms, hairdressing saloons, hotel bars, and other places where people/congregate, to re-open, and they have allowed several hundred' men, women, boys, and girls tp assemble and mix together in the. different Government, buildings and factories, arid yet they prohibit a few children from sitting some feat apart in large I airy rooms and answering a certain number of questions. Wo all know that the Health authorities havo had an anxious time recently, but I want to impress upon these same authorities that parents: and children have had an' anxious time «lso, and the Department, by postponinir these examinations, is only adding to the worries and anxieties of parents and children already suffering privations and bereavements through the epidemic. I trust wiser. counsels will prevail and tho examinations be allowed to take place on the dates mentioned. By doing so the authorities will give the unfortunate children concerned a chance to get clear away from their books, and have a little. surcease from study before the schools roopen. If the examinations are still further postponed it means that all, or nearly all, of the candidates will spendl their Christmas time- at their books, and instead of returning in February refreshed and fit for another year's work they will come back to school jaded, dissatisfied, and quite unfit to do satisfactory, and progressive 'work.—l am, etc.-, ' • SUFFERER, 4th December.