EXAMINATIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22809, 19 February 1936, Page 4

EXAMINATIONS

Sib,—lt is reported that the professors have determined that the standard for matriculation is too low, and is to be raised. It is surprising that no protest has been lodged by primary or secondary teachers, school committee associations, the New Zealand Educational Institute, or parents against the professors being judges in their own cause. The only hope seems to be that the Minister of Education is surveying the subject of examinations. To justify the professors it should be proved that the undergraduates are incapable of getting the M.A. degree within, say, five years of matriculating. In my own case when the B.A. and M.A. examination papers were marked by English examiners I found no difficulty in passing the M.A. in four j ears, thougb I was teaching all day. This shows that the matriculation examination was hard enough. Further, the examinations are largely subjective, especially in English and history. Professor Thorndiko said 13 years ago: " Elliott and Stando found that 100 experienced teachers of mathematics assigned grades ranging from 28 to over 90 to the same set of replies in an actual paper. ... If 900 students pass and 100 fail by official ratings in a subject there is every reason to believe that nearly half of those who failed really did better than some of those who passed." And a report by Sadler, Ballard, Burt, Spearman, Nunn, etc., on examinations held under ideal conditions, by experienced examiners, showed " alarming discrepancies"—e.g., in history, 21 to 70. The organ of the National Union of Teachers in England sums up: "The whole process is reduced to little more than a gamble." Further, if students pass the professors' own subjective examinations in some subjects and fail in others, they are often failed the next year in subjects in which they have already passed. This seems to be a ridiculous position. They should be credited in the second examination with the highest marks of their two examinations.

It is intolerable that in a democratic country parents must look on the average to an education of eight primary years, five secondary, and three university—i.e., 16 years—before their children get degrees. Surely 15 years are ample. Some professor has inferred that matriculation standard at Home is about our B.A. standard. Are we to believe either that the- average matriculation age at Home is 20 or that New Zealand students are very dull? The ideal of the avowed policy of Labour is to give the highest educational opportunities to all, and it- will not be attained if the professors are to be upholders of forgotten loyalties and lost causes such as rigid adherence to the results of subjective examinations. I expect next to hear that the secondary schools are to set the standard for proficiency examinations. —I am, etc., Teacher.