EXAMINATION SYSTEM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22258, 10 May 1934, Page 9

EXAMINATION SYSTEM

VIGOROUS CRITICISM AIM OF EDUCATION OBSCURED f Special to Daily Times.) ... WELLINGTON, May 0. Criticism of the external examination system was made to-day by Mr L, J. Wild, principal of the Feilding Agricultural Hi<2h School, and a member of the Senate of the University of New Zealand, when speaking against the school certificate recently introduced for secondary schools bv the Department of Education at a combined meeting of delegates to the conferences of the New Zealand Technical School Teachers’ Association and the New Zealand Secondary Schools’ Association. Mr Wild said the university liked examinations because they were a source of revenue. The teachers liked examinations because they enabled them : to do less real teaching. Mere memorising was not real teaching. The correspondence schools which had grown up like mushrooms liked examinations because, without them, they would not, exist. Examinations had certain advantages; they set a standard of attainment. That might 'be a good standard. Mr Wild asked his hearers whether they would deny. the fact, however, that external examinations gave pupils satisfaction with a percentage pass of about 50, and that they discredited 100 per cent, .accuracy. The only thing worth striving for, he said, was absolute accuracy. It was also maintained, continued Mr Wild, that examinations were set to maintain unifoxmity of attainment in various schools and to encourage the pupils to work. But did they do it? Examinations were not an inducement to work. The disadvantages of the examination system had often been, elaborated, and he was not going to dwell on them. In brief, they meant a stereotyped syllabus and stereotyped methods. They restricted initiative, narrowed' the field of inquiry, and restrained the natural curiosity of pupils. He submitted that the time had come when they should not fiddle with little bits of examinations, but consider what should be the aim of education Tn this changing, world. . .. Teachers fondly imagined that they were training the leaders of to-morrow, but the leaders were rising in spite of them. The teachers could get no help from the outside world. As the Government maintained the schools, the schools must maintain what the Government stood for. They would get no help from the politicians in any forward move; they would get no help from the business man of the university professor. They'were trying to live for two worlds, and were failing in both endeavours.

Mr Wild went on to criticise the subjects set for examinations, dealing in detail with arithmetic, writing, history, science, and languages. In history, they , had to maintain what the Government stood for. Surely there was something bigger in the world to-day than their own Empire, so why should history study be confined to English history? If they were going to have peace in the world,- how were they going to get it, he asked, without a knowing of the history of other countries? What was wanted w'as an aim for education. At the present time they seemed to be trying to provide for two worlds — one to come and one that was present. It was time to make a complete overhaul of education, and the first thing was to determine what was to be its aim. Mr Wild went on to speak of those factors in the modern world which might be utilised much more in education, such as the screen, the radio, and the press. The average newspaper, he;said, provided for about two hours work a day.- A newspaper editorial provided a lesson jn logic; it also provided lessons in history, geography, economics, and English from day to day. It was, known, he said, that there was no heed for examinations so far as providing a stimulus for work went. _ The pupils would work if they were given the opportunity.He objected to_ the proposed school certificate, and said that personally he was convinced that the University’should dot. have anyt thing to do with the examination of, school pupils. He was afraid that the school certificate would come to be regarded, as the competency certificate-was now regarded in relation to proficiency—as something inferior to the entrance examination. He suggested that the record' cards of the schools should take its place. They should teach- pupils to .place reliance bn the teacher’s report. ’ ’