PROFICIENCY TEST.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 21029, 13 November 1931, Page 10

PROFICIENCY TEST.

HAWKE'S BAY CHILDREN.

EFFECTS OF EARTHQUAKE. PLEA FOR SPECIAL TREATMENT. [by telegraph.—own correspondent.] HASTINGS, Thursday. A meeting of combined school committees lieltj this evening to protest against the local application of a more stringent proficiency examination, canie a resolution that in view of the exceptional conditions brought about by the earthquake disaster, the Education Department be requested to give special consideration in awarding proficiency certificates to pupils in the earthquake area. The resolution emphasised the following points:—(l) That the Education Department was so convinced of the nselessness of making up full attendance returns for the first term that teachers were instructed to refrain from recording the first 11 weeks. This itself indicates that the schools were not hack to normal. (2) During the first week of the third term some schools were closed owing to an influenza, epidemic, and for a period after reopening the attendance was low. (3) The children's nerves have been so badly shaken that they have not been capable of concentrating on. their work. The resolution is to be sent to the Minister of Education and the Director of Education.

Mr. C. Lassen, chairman of the Maliora School Committee, and a. member ot the Hawke's Bay Education Board, presided. In moving "the resolution, ho said on October 21, when there was a heavy fall of rain and hail, a very large number of, children at one school, even the hoys and girls in the sixth standard, broke down and cried. That was a striking example of the degree to which the children s nerves had been strained. Many children were afterward totally unfit to carry on with their lessons. Mr. G. Lord, headmaster of the larkvale School, said the children this year were perhaps not as generally as advanced as the children were last year. Mr. W. T. Chaplin, headmaster of the Mahora school, said it was not a failthing to expect children of schools in the earthquake area to do as well as children in other districts. The nerves of the children had been greatly upset. There should be some special consideration foi the earthquake area. Mr. J. Banks, headmaster of the Hastings Central School, said the powers of concentration of the children at his school had been greatly impaired and were not nearly as strong as before the earthquake. Furthermore, the children had not had the benefit of continuity of instruction. He was sure the matter could well be left to the inspectors. Mr. Lassen replied that the matter should certainly be brought to the notice of the Minister, in case the inspectors had instructions they could not vary or modify, no matter how great was their sympathy.