NEW ZEALAND UNIVERSITY

Evening Star, Issue 20193, 5 June 1929, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND UNIVERSITY

ACCREDITING SYSTEM

REPORT IF EXECUTIVE CSIUITTEE

[Per Exited Press Association,]

WELLINGTON,’ June 5

The Executive Committee of the New Zealand University has issued the following statement ; At its last nieetiiig in Dunedin, in January, the,Council of the University of New Zealand considered the question of accrediting, and referred lo its Executive Committee the following schemes

(1) That the Executive Committee, with the advice of the Education Department and the professorial boards of the Jour collages, draw .up a list of secondary schools which .shall, on application, be recognised as qualified to accredit candidates for matriculation.

(2) That any school not placed in the official list may at any time apply to the University Council for recognition.

(3) That in the case of pupils who have attended a recognised school for not less than three years a certificate that, in the opinion of the bead master or bead mistress (alter consultation with and endorsement by a. secondary schools inspector), the candidate has (without question) reached tlie standard of the university entrance examination in the subjects required by statute be accepted in lieu of the university entrance examination.

(4) That- each professorial board shall be provided with a registrar of students sent forward a.s accredited liy each school, and shall report annually to the University Council , upon the general performance of candidates from each school.

(5) That if in the- op in ion of the Professorial Board, accrediting by any school has proved unsatisfactory the University Council may deprive that school of its right to accredit. (G) That the university entrance examination shall be continued for candidates other than those who have been accredited. The committee has obtained the necessary information from (ho department and colleges and has decided that accrediting wdl not lie introduced this year, but that a conference of representatives of the univeisity, the department. and Hie secondary schools shall be held with the object- of working out Hie details am! providing the necessary safeguards. The. conference will be held probably in July, and its resolutions, after consideration by the Entrance- and Academic, Boards, will he submitted for final decision to the University Council at its next meeting. Some m!-app r eheiision exists as (n the principle of accrediting. It does not moan the complete abolition of examinations, nor does it mean that a, mere stroke ol the pen by the principal of a secondary school is to ho the sole qualification for entrance to tho university. During his secondary course the pupil will he examined at the end ol each term by the head of the school. There are three terms in the year, and the recorded results of the pupil in these term examinations, and also his papers, wdl he available for scrutiny by the secondary inspector who endorses Hie certificate. M hat accrediting really moans is that a weighed and deliberate estimate of a pupil's progress and attainment during the whole three or four years of the secondary course will’ be accepted in lien of the present single examination at the end of the final year of Hie school course.

The principle of accrediting was adopted years ago by the Education Department in granting junior and free place certificates. An enormous amount of examining has been saved, and all agree that the system has worked well. It is generally admitted that the schools and the public have come to look, upon the matriculation examination ns a. school-leaving examination. As a result, the university has been called upon to examine about 5,000 candidates a, year, and in this examination to _ handle and mark nearly 40,000 scripts, and the secondary schools have been seriously, limited in their freedom to adapt their courses to the natural aptitudes of their pupils. If the accrediting scheme is introd; d it is expected that it will reduce the number sitting for !he examination not only by those who are accredited, but by those wiio will then realise that adequate preparation is necessary. The University Commission reported that the general system of accrediting could not safely be instituted in New Zealand until there were more inspectors of secondary schools, and the university has brought this vital matter under the attention of the Minister of. Education.