Hawke's Bay Herald MONDAY, APRIL 11, 1904. SCHOLARSHIPS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12728, 11 April 1904, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Herald MONDAY, APRIL 11, 1904. SCHOLARSHIPS.

The Education Board meets this evening to consider now scholarship regulations prepared by its committee. We. believe that to-night will mark an epoch in the history of education in the province. We have repeatedly asserted our conviction that the low attainments of our young people as compared with those of other provinces are due to our bad scholarship system. We have pleasure in observing that every one of the reforms we have urged in former articles on the subject lias been accepted by the. board’s committee.

Firstly, the committee recommend that the age limit be fixed at fourteen. This is the keystone of the position, and .we trust the board will accept the recommendation. All progress is sacrificed if the age limit is to remain at fifteen. The lad far down on the list at thirteen is brighter than his fellow from the same school who at fourteen is high on the list. For example, the lad who was 42nd in 1901 went in again at fourteen and came out first. We have seen frequent cases of this sort in other years. The younger lad in such cases is working faster than the older. Therefore, a system which gives a scholarship to the tenth on the list aged fourteen, and refuses it to the twentieth on the list, who is only thirteen, sends the weaker boy to the. High School, and gives up all hope of gaining university honours. Moreover, the work needed for entering the university requires usually five or six years of High School residence. As the university age limit is nineteen, the lad who begins after fourteen has missed the tide.

The geographical conditions are removed. The scholarships are to be awarded in order of merit, those who need it receiving an extra allowance for travelling or boarding. It is necessary to remind the board that this plan was adopted last Christmas, and yet the sum of £SO was reserved for Poverty Bay, In consequence the candidates eighteenth, twenty-seventh, and thirty-second on the list got scholarships, while the pupils fourteenth, fifteenth, and all others intermediate got none, Poverty Bay

candidates used to top the list. It is unjust that when they no longer do so they should be foisted into privilege by the action of the board. Senior scholarships are created in a generous fashion. The scholarships can be extended for two years if the holders pass the matriculation examination, or take credit itt tile Junior j Civil Service examination, and if they declare their intention of 'competing for the Junior University scholarships. This is admirable. It sets the proper aim before all and puts Hawke’s Bay on a level with Other provinces. We have only one criticism tb make: let the board cut out the reference to the Civil Service examination. We have always advocated stringent tests for senior scholarships. To award them too freely is to throw away money. No one has any chance for a Junior University scholarship who cannot matriculate at the end of two years. As the Civil Service has a lower standard it is a mistake to let the boys think of it at all. Besides, the Civil Service examination falls in January, a month after the matriculation examination is over. To secure a good third .year's work it is necessary after the strain of the matriculation that a lad should get his full holiday. The fight for the university scholarships is so keen, that every day set apart for rest and recreation must be carefully guarded. With these improvements we hope that the board will adopt the scheme submitted by its committee, and adopt it now. There has been already too much delay. If they will do so the work of every school will at once be quickened. The average age for passing Standard VI. will be reduced to thirteen, by saving time in the infant department, and by granting frequent promotions to clever pupils. For the first time in the history of this province our young people will enter the university on equal terms with their neighbours. This province has splendid ability. It can excel if it is not hindered. At the recent National Scholarships examination our second candidate was ahead of all from South Canterbury and Southland, districts which frequently take the Junior University scholarships. Our first candidate, the dux of the colony, was 148 marks ahead of the best from North Canterbury, 100 ahead of Otago, and 78 ahead of Auckland.

The High Schools of these provinces secured last Christmas twelve out of the fifteen university scholarships. If ours can so completely surpass them in the class for pupils under fourteen, what but a bad system prevents us from equally excelling them in the class for pupils under nineteen. We trust our board will show itself as alive as other boards tk> tlhc conditions of success, and to the welfare of the children committed to them, and roll back the reproach wo have so meekly borne of never having won a Junior University scholarship.