EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2675, 21 June 1905, Page 57

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTE.

A meeting of the Committee of Management of the Otago Educational Institute was held at the Technical Sohool on Saturday morning, Mr A. M. Barnett (president) taking the chair. The business of the meeting was to consider the following schedule, which, it is notified, will come into operation on the first publication thereof in the New Zealand Gazette : — " Schedule. — The standard of attainment for a certificate of proficiency shall be th« same in all schools. No one shall receive a certificate of proficiency unless he — (a) Obtains at least 40 per cent, of the possible marks in English (including not lesa than 40 per cent, in each of the branches reading and composition) and at least 40 per cent, of the possible marks in arithmetic; (l>) obtains at least 60 per cent, of the possible aggrefite^marks in the following compulsory subjects : English, arithmetic, geography, and drawing; and (t>) satisfies the inspector that he has received sufficient instruction in the other computewry subjects and in the additional subjects aa prescribed by these regulations. "In the compulsory subjects named in. (b) the possible marks shall be in the following proportions : — English, 400; arithmetic, 200; geography, 100; drawing 100." After considerable discussion the following resolutions were passed : — " 1. That geography not lending itself to a written examination should be omitted! from the eompulsoiy subjects required for a proficiency certificate. "2. "That 40 per cent, be the maximum percentage required in English and arithmetic separately, and that in order to entitle a pupil to a proficiency certificate 50 per cent, of the aggregate marks in English, arithmetic, and drawing must be obtained. "3. That in view of this increase in the requirements for a proficiency certificate, the institute recommends that the age limit for admission to free secondary school education be abolished. " 4. That seeing the school year begins in January and that the city and suburban schools are now being examined undf the old regulation, the institute lecomrrionds that the above resolutions, if adopted, 'lo not come into force until January 1. 19Cl. " The effect of the above resoluticas, shortly mit. is to raise the minimum requirements in English and arithmetic from 30 per cent, to 40 per cent, in each subject, to abolish altogether a pass for geography in connection with the proficiency certificate, and to throw the hisrh schools open to all ■who have pained a proficie-nov certificate in Standard VI irrespective of the a«o at which that certificate was sained. It will be noticed also that the institute objects i to the immediate priforeement of the vpsulationq as suggested in a not© forwarded by the Inspector-general, to whom the vesohihons come to by the institute on Sa.hvrda.-tf will be communicated.,