MATRICULATION EXAMINATION

Otago Witness, Issue 3818, 17 May 1927, Page 55

MATRICULATION EXAMINATION

TEACHERS’ DISSATISFIED.

MINISTER PROMISES IMPROVEMENT.

WELLINGTON, May 12.

Dissatisfaction with the matriculation examination was expressed at the annual meeting to-night of the Secondary Schools’ Association.

The President (Dr G. H. Uttley) said that very little progress had been made with tho university changes advocated by Mr Tate in his report, and approved by the then Minister of Education. He referred to the prescriptions for the matriculation examination, to the absolute dominance which the examination held over the New Zealand secondary schools, and to the erroneous impression held by the general public of the value of the examination. The number of candidates this year was just as great as last year. The correction of that vast mass of examination material must have beep just as unsatisfactory, and it might be said of th© results that they were probably just as unsatisfactory. As a university entrance examination it had failed in its object. The prescriptions, the standard, and the whole system required revision. This would never bo efficiently done until the secondary school teachers were given a voice in an examination that concerned - them as much as it did the university professors. The Minister of Education (the Hon R. A. Wright), who subsequently addressed the conference, said that, so far as the dominance of the matriculation examination over secondary schools was concerned, there hope for the future in the creation of a University Entrance Board. The duty of that board, he said,., would-be to consider the curriculum and courses of study in secondary arid technical high schools, and to consider any . matter affecting the

secondary schools which might be referred to it by the Minister of Education or the University Council. The personnel of the board would include four representatives, of the university, four members appointed 1 by the Minister, and six representatives of the secondary schools. The board, therefore, would be thoroughly representative, and the secondary teachers should be ablo to de something on the lines devised by it.