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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8740, 23 May 1914, Page 5

Tho annual report presented by the school inspectors to tho Auckland Education Board drew attention to the evils attending the hasty or ill-advised promotion of pupils from class to class. Tho inspectors that it was / still necessary to refer to this matter. "It is difficult,” they said, “to overestimate tho harmful results of injudicious classification. A pupil unfitted for promotion, if moved forward, not only acts as a serious bar' to the progress of others, but is most unfairly dealt with in being required to undertake work for which ho has not received the necessary preparation. Tho difficulty of coping with tho work exhausts his energy, repeated failure, loads to discouragement, tho knowledge that others nro making real progress and that he is notdisheartens him, the. not result being that his efforts tend 1 to diminish, and tho close of tho year finds him hut little advanced and with a growing disinclination to prolong his school life. Wo would again urgo on teachers tho great and obvious need for tho non-promotion of pupils that have failed to master the requirements of thoir present standard, and whoso progress therefore gives but little promise of success in tho next. These remarks, it is understood, to not npnly to the larger and more efficient schools, but only to those whoso teachers from want of experience or from inability to withstand local pressure, or from hick of aoprecialion of tho fur-reaching effects of their action, err iu the direction indicated,.’’