FEWER STUDENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21347, 23 November 1932, Page 12

FEWER STUDENTS

MATRICULATION TEST

THE CITY AND SUBURBS

ENTRIES DECREASE BY 292

COMMENT OF HEADMASTERS

A remarkable decline in the number of candidates from Auckland city and suburbs who will sit for the ' university entrance and associated examinations next month was revealed in official figures issue<J yesterday. Last year there were 1168 candidates; this year the total has dropped to 876, a decrease of 292. "I find it most difficult to account for," said Mr. H. J. D. Mah.on, headmaster of the Auckland Boys' Grammar School. "It may be duo to the hard times through which we are passing and to a belief among many parents that the professions are overcrowded. Some would decide on this account that the advantages of passing the examination were not worth the time, trouble and expense involved.

A suggestion that parents were responsible was put to Mr. F. W. Gamble, headmaster of the Mount Albert Grammar School. ."My experience is quite the contrary," he said. '-'I have had to advise strongly against allowing some would-be candidates going forward this year. 1 considered their chances of success too slight. And then there is this point concerning the examination: Almost invariably the first question asked by a business firm of an applicant for a position is 'Have you matriculated ?' The result is that parents look on the examination not so much as a means of entry to the university as an entry to the business world."

A possible explanation of the decrease put forward by Mr. Gamble was based on the success of a large number of students last year. "We often find that after a successful year we have a lean one, he said. "Last year was a! good one so far as the university entrance examination is concerned and it may be that a number of border line students got through. Another year they might have failed, and a good many of them would go forward for a second attempt with the normal number of new candidates in the next year." The examinations are for university entrance (matriculation), medical, dental, engineering and accountants' preliminary, fine arts preliminary and preliminary science for C.O.P. in dental surgery. They will begin on Thursday morning, December 1, and end at noon on Tuesday, December 13. The official centre for Auckland is the University College, and the following are sub-centres Scots Hall; the Grammar School, Takapuna; the Girls' Grammar School, Epsom; the Auckland Girls' Grammar School; King's College and Sacred Heart College. All candidates for entrance scholarships will attend at the University College. Sitting for the examination at the University College there will be 268 candidates, and at Scots Hall there will be 189 from the Auckland Grammar School, and 127 from the Mount Albert Grammar School. At the Takapuna Grammar School there will be 81; at the Girls' Grammar, Epsom, 67; Auckland Girls' Grammar, 73; King's College, 31; and at Sacred Heart College, 40. There are, in all, 78 centres in the Dominion, those nearest to Auckland being Kaitaia, Whangarei, Dargaville', Wark»vorth, Helensville, Pukekohe, Huntly, Hamilton and Thames.