LEAVING CERTIFICATES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20599, 25 June 1930, Page 10

LEAVING CERTIFICATES.

The Wellington Technical College Board, in giving tentative approval to the idea of a leaving certificate for secondary school pupils, favours a step that has lately had advocacy in, the course of discussions on the merits of accrediting and the matriculation examination. This particular examination has long been serving more than one purpose, whereas it originally had only ono, as its name implies. It was instituted as a test of fitness to proceed to university study. To pass it is not to enter the university: that is accomplished by making a specified declaration and being placed accordingly on the register of the university—in this country, on the books of one or other of the affiliated teaching institutions. But every year a great number of pupils sit for.this examination without any intention of using a pass as a means of getting into the "matrix" of the university. Such a pass, got without any reference at all to matriculating, is viewed by these pupils as their certificate of proficiency in secondary school subjects, and it has come to be regarded in this way by commercial as well as professional employers. But it is fairly obvious that this use of the examination departs greatly from tfco real and intended purpose, and that to use it as both an entrance qualification for academic study and a certificate of attainments demanded in applicants for employment is to misapply it and to confuse things that differ. The difference is real and practical. Meant to qualify for further study, with a view to a diploma, the pass has come to be used as a proof that no more study need bo undertaken. A leaving certificate could better serve the extra and unrelated purpose to which the examination pass for matriculation is now so generally put. Tho methods of its granting call for consideration, • and they should be devised in keeping with this particular purpose; but a, good deal is to be said for tho provision of a leaving certificate, quite apart from a matriculation test. Itß devising would clarify the position and serve the needs of industry and commerce as well as the secondary schools.