MATRICULATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14926, 26 February 1912, Page 4

MATRICULATION.

0 Sir,— fact thai only about 25 per cent.. • lof candidates passed shows that there is ' j something wrong. And what makes it- a serious matter is that matriculation is being >• j oreetoil into the first obstacle to bo faced f in many now occupations. The whole matter should bo reviewed and re-formed. Like ' tho Civil Service and degree examinations, i" matriculation should be taken, at any rate ,s |by adult students, in sections. Failure in . | one subject should not entail repeating the j vliolo grind. Latin should not be compul- " sory. English, like Latin, was one full of , intlect ions- We havo flung them all oyer--1 board as encumbrances, yet the universities maintain that the study of these encumi brtuuvs gives a training that is not only f valuable, but uniquely so. "\vhere is the con- • sistency of this? In English, sounds and symbols aro mentioned, and orthography (right, spoiling) prescribed, but the very idea 1 of having the same symbol always for the j . same sound is universally jeered at (no solid argument can be adduced against it). And, j 5 again, students may fail by a mark or two, - and, not knowing this, may labour at the T subject of failure, with the result that other ' subjects, in which they passed, become rusty, ' and at the next attempt they fail in these. , One reason of the numerous failures in Latin recently was the setting of detached sentences, each with its own special catch, 2 instead of setting a continuous piece. H. Mason, M.A.