GREY TECHNICAL SCHOOL ACADEMIC RESULTS

Grey River Argus, 20 April 1948, Page 3

GREY TECHNICAL SCHOOL ACADEMIC RESULTS

Mr F. L. Turley presided at the monthly meeting of the Greymouth Technical High .School Board last evening. There, were, also present? Mrs Blair, -Messrs McNptly; E. 0. Henry, D.. S. Kennedy ~ ahq .-Wt Stewart (Principal): • Apologies-were, received from Messrg -North,' Haddock, Gladstone and. Gillespie? J . - . The Principal said -letters had been received from U.N.O. and C.0.R.5.0. appeaT’orgaijisatiOns: for: assistance. They could respdifd by thb following four,methods: (1) ’Voluntary subscHpti'qfisvoL coupons; (2) voluntary subscriptions of money.; voluntary subscriptions of clothing';-(4) adoption oi'-'Some - English- ; hchoW to • -which- ' to send food parcels. ■■ ’-., r EX.A MJ NMI ON- VITiFS £ Mr Stetvart present-a' ’digest of the examinations ' -ahd-' 'othbf ' academic activities for tfi’e year ending 1947 an'd mentioned- a'-.number;- ? of Japts 'ivhi'ch tended to make-the information more enlightehing. vv.-;, ■

He stated: Reference is made to subjects for university; degree., This work iS- hd “part l of si school’s programme; which 'belongs to a university .course...,.A certain ,nuniber pesent themselves . -gh4 . every .effort is .made Tor;their advantage,’ thoUgn the. needs- of . such a. :group. are L a handicap -for the teacher ail’d pupils of .Upper. IV, .whose natural aim is quite different. ’As to technological examinations, it is many years since there have been any candidate's for these from the day school. The reason, is two-fold firstly,- that- the-em-ployers , areno longer.,, requiring or urging their ‘ eniplby.ees . td.. go for them, or offering inducements to.do so;, and second,., that .their place has now been '.more than adequately taken by the School Certificate, with its much wider 'programme and .the higher status, its.,possession gives. The same factors have appplied to reduce the appear of the Public Service Commissioner’s examination in shorthand-typing. There , was r .a time whehThis wd§’the only bbvi'ous approach for a girl to a. clerical position in the Government .service, and very many private employers aske'd for it too. Now it is no longer so; much greater “kudos” and higher rewards attach to possession of the School Certificate, though approach both to the Government service and to private employment /is, in . .the present condition of affairs, possible without any examination qualifica? tion at all. Owing to the much wider demands of the School Certificate there has been a slight decrease th' the time that.can be devoted to the purely technical subjects of. the conrmercial course, the drop ip the first year of the course in this school being from eight, hours weekly to, 62; in the second from 10 to 8 and m the third and lat'er years from 13 1-3 to 12i hours. Of the two purely commercial examinations, the. Chamber of Commerce and the Public Service Commissioner, it is the former that seems to attract the greater number of candidates nowadays. . For the School Certificate the chief academic examination .of. the.,.school year, the Education Department has repeatedly stressed that this is the natural crown of a four-year course, particularly for pupils, of the more technical ' courses, .. where a high standard is set in the practical subjects. in this, school, pupils are given the option of entering, .in their third year, but are never .compelled or even’ strongly urged, to .do so. A considerable proportion, of-them Qlsct to sit, especially? in the general secondary course; with the consequence that th P proportion of passes _ tends to be lowered. Nevertheless, it , is thought best not to discourage any candidates -who wan this preliminary e Sch r oo? Certificate successes came from the following courses: General, secondary, . commercial,s, engineering and domestic-.. science.,. exammatron results with the number'of -pupils who sat and the number: who were successful in parenthesis were .as follows :— B C0m.,.,6, (4); Univ. Nat. Bursary. 2,* (1-: Higher School. Certificate. ? (9): University Entrance 17 (13), <7); Shorthand (150 word .per .minuted 1 .(11; P.S.C. Commission shorttypewriting. 6, (5); Technical Bursaries 7, (6). ; :