UNIVERSITY ENTRANCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 40, 17 February 1939, Page 11

UNIVERSITY ENTRANCE

ACCREDITING SYSTEM

ALTERNATIVE SUGGESTED

The system of accrediting, to replace the formal examination for entrance to the University, as recommended recently by the Senate of the University of New Zealand, was commented upon by Mr. W. A. Armour, headmaster of Wellington College, in an interview. He suggested an alternative which, in his, opinion, would better meet the case. The accrediting system, he pointed out, would mean much more work falling on the shoulders of teachers, perhaps to the detriment of their teaching. The onus of deciding upon border-line cases would fall on the teacher who would thus come into an unenviable relation with many parents who would use every device to influence teachers to put their children on the recommended list.. The proposed system would also demand the demarcation of secondary schools into two classes, those permitted to accredit, and those not permitted—a distinction, although there might be good reasons for it, which would become invidious in the eyes of parents and the public, "Personally," said Mr. Armour, "I want to see the adoption of a scheme whereby the controlling influence of the university over the secondary schools shall wane. The Education Department is the body .haying the control of and the responsibility for our system of post-primary education, and we want the influence of the department and not the university to be j paramount, specially as only 5 per cent, of our pupils go to the univer-! sity. I think that the school certificate, issued by the education depart- j ment, should be the visible symbol of attainment demanded by the aver-1 age employer for pupils who have' spent about three years in our secon- j dary schools." . j

He would suggest, he said, in the place of accrediting, (1) a minimum three years' approved post-primary course; (2) the possession of a School Certificate obtained after a minimum of three yea rs on the results of an external examination conducted by the Education Department together with the candidate's school record of work; and (3) the completion of a further yeav's course to an approved standard after the award of the School Certificate.

In the award of the. School Certificate the balance should be struck between the external examination and the pupil's school record. The University could not complain of this scheme because it would know that every candidate for- University Entrance had faced an external examination and had submitted to review, also, his whole school career.