NEW EXAMINATION

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 110, 9 April 1934, Page 8

NEW EXAMINATION

“BUSINESS MEN’S MATRICULATION.” THE SCHOOL CERTIFICATE. (By Telegraph. —Special to Standard.) WELLINGTON, April 9. “This will be the business man’s matriculation certificate,” declared Hon. R. Masters (Minister of Education) when the regulations were published of the School Certificate Examination, operating immediately and providing the basis for the first examination towards the end of this year, entries having to be made bv October 1. In the phrase used b- the Minister, he was briefly expressing a view that the new certificate will be acceptable to business men in assessing the qualifications of young people desiring employment, for it will prove that they have been suitably educated, through the secondary stage. Formerly, pupils who completed courses in the secondary schools were only able to produce some proof of their academic standard by passing matriculation, now known as the University entrance examination. This is good evidence of suitability for entering the universities, and it is planned with that object. However, in default of any other certificate of education up to a fairly high standard above the primary, young New Zealanders by the thousand “took matriculation” with no thought of going further.

Now, through the medium of the school certificate examination, which secondary school authorities have been for years desiring, a pupil not intending to enter on university life can undertake a good course of study through the secondary (including the technical) schools, and produce a certificate which will be of real value, for it will prove the attainment of scholarship along lines designed, not for university preparation, but for application in business. WIDE RANGE OF SUBJECTS.

According to the conditions of the school certificate examination, the subjects available, though not all to be mastered, total 31. The first nineteen in the list are those included, in the University entrance examination, and the same standard is required to secure a pass for the school certificate. Where the latter commences to diverge from matriculation requirements, and to provide a roundmg-off for the student going into an occupation without passing through the University, is in the remainder of the subjects which compriso the following: Technical drawing, economics, book-keeping, shorthand and typewriting, needlework, housecraft, technical electricity, heat engines, applied mechanics, plane trigonometry, physiology and hygiene, and general biology. In order to qualify for the school certificate, a candidate must pass the examination in English and at least four other subjects. A partial pass will be recognised under tfie new regulations if the candidate passes in at least four subjects, and the examination may be completed in a subsequent year, when the candidate may also take any further subject. When the certificate is issued, it will bear under the authority of the Director of Education a record of the school at which the candidate obtained post-primary education, and the subjects passed in the examination. _ The Department of Education is closelv co-operating with the University of New Zealand over the new system and it is intended to hold the University entrance and. school certificate examinations simultaneously, utilising the organisation of the University in the way of supervisee and buildings. And as for the subjects which are not included in matriculation requirements, the “Standard s correspondent is officially assured that the examination requirement will be fully up to University entrance standard. Thus the new certificate should have a practical value fully as great as the old matriculation, with the additional advantage to the holder that it denotes the acquisition of knowledge definitely in line with the requirements of commercial life. LINES OF STUDY. An education authority has made a selection of subjects from the new regulations, which candidates for the school certificate examination may take having in mind specific occupations: Commercial, English, history, geography, book-keeping, and shorthand a.nd typing; or English, arithmetic, bookkeeping, economics, shorthand and typing; or English, agriculture, geography, book-keeping and economics; or English, mathematics, book-keeping, economics and history; or English, French, book-keeping, economics and geography. Engineering as a future career would cause the student to make a choice on the following lines: English, technical drawing, drawing, electricity and magnetism, technical electricity ; or English, drawing, technical drawing, heat and light, heat engines; or English, mathematics, mechanics, applied mechanics, plane trigonometry ; or the engineering, preliminary examination of the University. For the building trades, a grouping of suitable subjects would be: English, drawing, technical drawing, mechanics and applied mechanics; or English, drawing, technical drawing, arithmetic and book-keeping. Students intending to enter the sphere of agriculture could secure the certificate by passing in English, botany, chemistry, general biology and agriculture; or an alternative group which would substitute book-keeping for botany. Domestic grouping would comprise the subjects of English, home science, drawing, needlework and housecraft; or English, physiology and hygiene, drawing, needlework and housecraft. So adaptable is the system that it is possible to obtain a certificate covering subjects which will help the student in commercial life followed by marriage, by taking the subjects of English, drawing, shorthand and typing, needlework and housecraft. The new system will he of real value to post-primary teachers in enabling them to plan suitable vocational courses for students, with a guarantee that their work will eventually obtain an official certificate giving them an academic standing equal to that enjoyed by the matriculated student of past years.