APPROVAL OF EDUCATIONISTS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 7 April 1934, Page 5

APPROVAL OF EDUCATIONISTS

SCHOOL CERTIFICATE EXAMINATION WIDE RANGE OF PRACTICAL SUBJECTS Although no definite opinions could be expressed until the full text of the school certificate examination regulations was received and the standard and conditions of the examination were made clear, Christchurch authorities on education whose views were canvassed by the “Press,” agreed that the new examination should serve a useful purpose in freeing many students from the trammels of the university entrance examination. Its usefulness, however, would be severely limited unless the entry fee was reasonably low, said Dr. D. E. Hansen, principal .of the Christchurch Technical College. He said that the entry fee for the Education Department’s senior free place examination in the past had been £l, and if the fee for the new examination was to exceed that sum it would gravely discourage the candidature of students. The range of subjects was wide anti would be of advantage to the technical high schools, whose pupils in the past had had to sit for examinations the subjects of which were frequently quite unsuitable. Dr. Hansen said he understood that where the subjects taken by a candidate were the same as those for the university entrance examination he would take the papers for the latter examination. He understood that the standard for the two examinations would be the same, but the school certificate examination gave a wide range of subjects and more freedom of choice. Mr L. F. de Berry, headmaster of the West Christchurch District High School, said that the examination would be welcomed as a standard of attainment for boys and girls who wished to go out into the business world at the end of three years, and who did not wish to attend the university. Although many candidates matriculated at the end of three years’ secondary school education, tlie university expected students to pass its entrance examination only after four years, said Mr de Berry. It would not be known until the full text of the regulations was received whether the standards for the two examinations were to be the same. He considered that the general tendency of the regulations was excellent. They provided a wide range of practical subjects adapted to modem needs. The examination should free a large number of boys and girls from the incubus of the university entrance examination, which hail been forced to serve purposes for which it was never intended.