The Hawera Star. THURSDAY, AUGUST 5. 1926. SCHOLARSHIP CONDITIONS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 5 August 1926, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 5. 1926. SCHOLARSHIP CONDITIONS.

Delivered every evening by 8 o’clock iu Hawera, Manaia, Normanbv, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, Wavorlsy, Mokoia, Whakamara, Ohangai, Mere, mere, Praaer Road and Ararat*.

Except from that considerable and growing .section of the .people whose objective in .life is to find .someone! to lean upon —preferably the Government —the tightening up of the Junior and Senior National .Scholarship regulations will not meet with, serious criticism. The main alteration, indeed — the lowering of the junior scholarship age limit fr.om fourteen to thirteen years—has been urged upon the Department by several education boards, Taranaki amongst them. The objection to the existing state of affairs has been that :a majority of the scholarships has been won by entrants who are' already secondary school .pupils: That is, a. girl or boy who lias passed! the Proficiency examination at the age of twelve, then goes forward to ;ni secondary school, and sits for a scholarship next year. It seems rather absurd to argue that these pupils have an unfair advantage over others, by virtue of that one. year of secondary schooling, for scholarship .papers are set at .primary standard, and time given to mastering the declensions and conjugations, or to the first mysteries, of “Mathematics” (as distinct from, plain, sixth standard ‘‘Arithmetic.”) is thrown away so far as preparation for this examination is concerned. A more reasonable explanation of the preponderance of secondary pupils in the scholarship lists is that a boy or girl who passes the sixth standard! at twelve is probably cleverer than one who passes it at thirteen. To put it another way: Had the ago limit always been thirteen, the winners as often as not would have been those who win now from secondary schools, only then they would have won a year earlier from their primary schools. Several education boards seemed to have, a notion, however, that primary pupils were at a disadvantage in competition with those from high and technical schools, and the one way to meet this objection fairly was to reduce the age. (It would have been most unfair to have debarred secondary pupils from entering.) At the same time, we should? be pleased to know that the Education Committee of the House is ready to safeguard the interests of the .country child, whoso disadvantago in comparison with his town cousin is likely to be emphasised, bv the reduction in the :ago limit. The. regulations at present make an endeavour to overcome the disability suffered by pupils in lower gradie schools—where sometimes one teacher, of comparatively poor qualifications is responsible for the work of all the scholars —but the country child is .subject frequently to Another handicap equally severe. To be eligible to sit for the junior scholarship examination in future, a pupil must be under the age of thirteen on December 1. Allowing the full six years for progress through the standards, he must enter them at the age of seven. In a. large!!', school, with, one teacher to a class, it is possible for a

brilliant girl or boy to skip a standard, or to take two in one year; but the country teacher is seldom able to give the assistance necessary for this speeding up. Again, the town child! may begin school at the age of five without in convenience —he lias no great distance to go, has asphalt paths to his door, and may return home for the mid-day meal. In the ease of a country child, however, with anything up to three: miles to travel to school, with roads sometimes unmetalled, and, in the absence of special arrangements, with not- so much as a warm drink ;at lunch-time on the coldest, of as in tc i days. the. case is radically different. The careful country mother is more inclined to keep her little one at home until he is se\'en than to pack him off to school at fiA*e; but now a start lira3l bo made very soon after fiA-e if the child is to have any chance of winning a. scholarship. 'Competing on equal terms, (country pupils can more than hold tlieir oivn with those from the towns 'and cities; but it is seldom they do .compete on equal terms, and it Avill be the duty of the Legislature, before passing the present Bill, to satisfy itself that the amended! scholarship regulations do not. increase this inequality. The proposal to raise the value of the senior scholarships to holders avlio are compelled to live away from homo is to be commended, and the reduction in the number of scholarships offered —without which the increased value probably would not be granted! —is not. a retrograde step. It Avill make the winning of a scholarship a higher honour, and Avill guard against. the admission of mediocrity to the benefits which are intended only for the outstandingly clever. The provision to authorise ago concessions ini the marking of papers is one for which the need lias yet to be shown- —candidates avlio are a year below tlie age limit Avill haA-e another chanc-e the following year, and examiners .capable of making .allowances to balance a difference in ago of less than twelve months are surely few and far between. It is unfortuante that a child who is thirteen on NoA*em,bcr 30 should be regarded as a year older than one whoso .birthday falls only tAvo days later j but that is something which most, people are.up against at ono time or another in life. Bar better, Ave- should imagine, to make some concession to the child who A\ T a s not able to begin liis schooling so early as another.