The Star. [PUBLISHED DAILY] MONDAY, MAY 27, 1895. SCHOOL EXAMINATIONS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 3031, 27 May 1895, Page 2

The Star. [PUBLISHED DAILY] MONDAY, MAY 27, 1895.

SCHOOL EXAMINATIONS.

We find in the Canterbury Prees an intsresting article on the new Code juet issued by the British Education Department, from which we get information as to an important new departure in reepeat of inspectors' examinations. There has long been a pretty general feeling tbat the annual examinations for passes is responsible for muoh tbat is artificial in the primary sohool educations, tbat in truth and in fact there has been more cram than education. We suppose the evil will be admitted by everyone. Parents recognise it ; it is painfully evident to employers into whose service lads pass when they leave school ; and tbe principal burden of inspectors' complaints is want of intelligence and originality on tbe part of the children whom they examine. After making all allowances for the proverbial difficulty of putting old beads on young shoulders, the oon tenlion throughout bas been tbat there is a great fault in the system, and that fault bas been localised at the annual pass examination as a test of tbe effioienoy of teaobing. The, Canterbury Press observes, *' In tbe year 1870 was passed Mr Forster's Act for tbe purpose of providing State machinery for the eduoation of the masses. Since tbat time the Home Government have been engaged in attempting to discover what tbat eduoation ought to be, and how it should be tested. And since that time the shadow of examination has dogged tbe footsteps of each generation from tbe cradle. It is not very creditable to the effioienoy of State management in this department that officialism has taken nearly a whole generation to discover and put in force a theory of ednoation and the tests thereof which has been held by nearly all praotioal teaohers ever Bince they began to know anything about their business. All teachers have known since before 1870 tbat tbe real object of teaching ib to encourage thought not memory ; to develop faculty, not to give a shilling's worth of instruction abont every tbing ; and all teachers have known eqnally well, and have said it, that one annual examination ac a test of efficiency was really misleading, and when applied to a great, number ot subjects only resulted in encouraging oram and developing a Bpeoies of human parrot. It is really rather an appalling thought suggested by the new English Code of 1895— 1f this is right, what terrible mistakes we have been making for tbe last five and twenty years! Tbe bard and fast test of examination or formal inspection has lain like an incubna upon tbe efforts of a'l trne teachers for nearly a whole generation. A good percentage of passes meant bread and batter and clothes to the teacher, and a bad percentage meant no promotion, and possible dismissal. But to secure a good percentage for

certain it was absolutely necessary to cultivate the memory of the children at the expense of their intelligence. Every good teacher has known this, and groaned under it, as we say, tor nearly a genera* tion. He haa felt himself orippled in every attempt to spend time on developing intelligenob— indeed, he haß not had the time to spend ; he has felt himself to be an unwilling accomplice in the assassination of the budding intellectual life of one generation after another." The difficulty has been not so much doubt of the correctness of this view as that of providing a remedy* Obviously there must be some test— some cheok npon the charaoter of the work done. Bat what should it be P How should it be applied ?; And these questions have not been satisfactorily answered. But in England there is to be an attempt to face the, question and solve the problem, for with a; stroke of the pen, the old sy6tem is to! oease. "Any Inspector may dispense! entirely with the annual examination and substitute two ' surprise visits.' So here we have it at last recognised by State officialism what all edaoational experts have been dinning into the earß of officialism for yeais past, namely, that the true use of examination and inspection is to detect and prevent negleot, and to suggest and advise and encourage. We may safely say ibat in England, at leasti the annual examination for passes will in a few years be a thing of the past; teaobera will be allowed greater freedom and the necessity for cram will oease." We must Bay it would be a great gain, and we have no doubt that the principle is right. It would be an immense advantage to do away with the continual worry and reatleßßnesß appertaining to preparation for examination and the unhealthy excitement connected with the event itself, but there must be some test, and what that is we are not yet aware. Until this is explained all that oan be done is to Bnbßcribe to the principle of a change which proposes to substitute education for cram. When the details of the scheme are available we shall see whether the price of this promised boon is the loss of all obeok npon teaoberß or the endowment of inspectors with a power to approve or condemn work according to their fancy unsupported even by the approximate facts and figures secured by the annual examinations bb now carried on.