ACCREDITING PLAN

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 14, 17 January 1941, Page 4

ACCREDITING PLAN

UNIVERSITY ENTRANCE

OBJECTION TO

SECONDARY SCHOOLS

(By releuraph —Press Association*

AUCKLAND, January 16.

The feeling that the accrediting scheme for the University entrance examination put forward by the New Zealand University Senate showed . a lack of trust in the secondary schools was expressed by Mr. E. N. Hogben, president of, the New Zealand Secondary Schools' Association, at the meeting of the Univer-i sity Senate today. Mr. Hogben headed a deputation from the asso-! ciation which sought to place before the Senate its views on the accrediting system and outline the plan favoured by the schools. He was accompanied by Miss E. M. North, principal of Wellington Girls' College, and Mr. G. W. Morice, of Wairarapa College. While stating that the deputation did not question the University's right to decide who should enter its colleges, Mr. Hogben said he felt there was not enough co-operation between the University and secondary schools. He pointed out that only 10 per cent, of the pupils of post-primary schools actually entered on University careers, so that, while the Senate felt concerned about the standard of those entering the colleges, the schools had the much larger problem, of those who took the classical course without a real interest in or aptitude for it. ' . The plan favoured by the secondary schools, he continued, was for an examination on the lines of the school certificate test and of a, standard at least as high to be taken at the end of three or four years, followed by another one year's or two years' work. The scheme went half-way to accrediting, for admission to the University would be granted when the University liaison officer, inspectors, and the headmaster considered the pupil had reached a satisfactory standard in post-certificate work. The school certificate examination would be . conducted by a board composed of representatives of the, Education Boards, the University Senate, and post-prim-ary schools. CHANGED ATTITUDfE. Admitting that the attitude of the secondary schools to accrediting had changed over the past few years, Mr. Hogben said many matters had come up to bring this about. In the existing circumstances, however, it was considered vital to replace entirely the University entrance examination as it stood at present. In spite of all the eiforts of headmasters the school certificate examination had not succeeded in winning an equal place with the University entrance as a qualification either with parents or employers as a whole, and consequently the narrower syllabus of the University entrance was still favoured in most cases.

One of the main points raised by Mr. Morice In his criticism of the Senate's scheme was the objection to the drawing up of a list of approved schools in which accrediting would be carried out. This, he declared, was undemocratic.

Mr. F. A. de la Mare (Hamilton) considered the only actual difference between the Senate's scheme and that put forward by the deputation seemed to be that the deputation favoured examination at the end of the third year, white the Senate left it to the schools to assess the standard of attainment.