THE EXAMINATION EVIL.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20584, 6 December 1928, Page 8

THE EXAMINATION EVIL.

The climax of the examination season of the current year for our'younger generation has been reached this week. At numerous centres throughout the Dominion the matriculation examination of the University of New Zealand is being held. The sight of the legion of hopeful entrants to the halls of learning nervously awaiting the ordeal must remind older people of that dreaded period they once endured and remind them also of the pressing need of some mitigation of the examination evil. The discussion of the proposed new matriculation standard of the universities of England and Wales has included severe strictures of the existing examisystem, and Germany is faced with the serious problem of .a large and increasing suicide rate in " her schools as the result, it is thought, of the intensive intellectual tests that are in vogue in that country. Tips alarming news from overseas need not unduly disturb our educational authorities, but the fact remains that newcomers to our academic - life from abroad have not infrequently commented on the great stress that is placed on the results of examinations in New Zealand and on their multiplicity. It is unnecessary to draw attention to the evils of the present examination system, which are apparent to all those who have passed through the mill of the educational machine, but the difficulty is to suggest any suitable and’ adequate reform. An interesting system, which has been thoroughly tested by a fourteen years’ trial in the schools of Victoria, does, it appears, give considerable relief to our youth in this respect. In his report to the University of Melbourne, the Director of Education, Mr M, P. Hansen, has fully discussed the dangers and difficulties of this new system in education. It has been described in some detail in these columns by Professor Lawson and consists briefly of allowing .the headmasters of certain approved secondary schools to report on the work of pupils and to make these reports, with proper safeguards, the basis of promotion instead of external examinations. In its favour it is claimed that those best able to judge the student’s ability are the headmaster and teachers who have been in close association with the student’s work throughout the year and have had every opportunity of estimating his mental development and observing any peculiarities in his temperament. v. Under the external examination system many a youth intellectually deserving of success in life has been robbed of his chance through being more highly strung than one less gifted. The claim tljat the system of accrediting would be abused by some schools granting certificates of educational fitness without proper discrimination has not in practice been substantiated. In Victoria only a few large well-established schools with excellent teaching facilities and experienced instructors have been approved by the Educational Department’s inspectors, and the students who have matriculated from these schools on the headmaster’s reports have compared very favourably with those from non-approved schools who have successfully negotiated the external examinations. The University of New Zealand has this matter under consideration at present, and there is little doubt that the system described would be found satisfactory in this Dominion. Many parents would welcome this reform as the best available means of ensuring that the whole future of a child should not hang, as it frequently docs, upon a few tense hours spent in an examination room.