PROFICIENCY EXAM.

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 123, 20 November 1931, Page 7

PROFICIENCY EXAM.

NO ALTERATION

NEEDLESS ALARM

That there is little need for th« agitation, that has been rife recently; about this year's proficiency examina- ■ tion is the opinion of Mr. T. B. Strong, Director of Education. The examination, he says, will follow the syllabus entirely, and pupils and teachers need . have no fear that the marking will b& more1 severe than in the past. He discounted several rumours to the contrary that have been current, especially those about a reduction in the number of proficiency passes. "Very little alteration indeed has been made in the examination testa set for proficiency certificates," Mr. • Strong said. "The Department docs not undertake that the examination shall always be the same from year to year. It is quite contrary to custom, in fact, for any examining body to publish a full description of the nature' of the. examination test that will be set. No one, for example, would expect the New Zealand University to issue a public description, of the nature of the papers that were about to be set. Some years ago the proficiency papers were varied by introducing a type of examination that was popular in.America and that had found some favour in Great Britain. The' results .did. not satisfy the Department, and it was decided this year not to set so'many tests of that particular kind, but to reveTt to a type that had proved very satisfactory in previous years. "A sudden change has not been made, as tests of both kinds find their place in the present examination," Mr. Strong continued. "Care has been taken, that no tests shall be set that do' not conform with the requirements of the public school syllabus." No teacher who has taught in accordance with the syllabus need be apprehensive that his pupils will not be sufficiently, well prepared for' this year's examination. A great' deal of harm has, however, been done by suggestions that have recently been, made that the examination will be more than ordinarily difficult. The , psychological effect of such a suggestion is likely io be such as to make candidates unduly nervous when facing the examination. The feeling of apprehension is easily communicated from teachers to pupils, and in this instance has no Teal foundation. It has been alleged in gome quarters that instructions have been issued to the inspectors to mark the examination papers more strictly than usual. The only instructions that were issued were those made known to teachers through the ', Education Gazette' of October."