“REFORM OVERDUE"

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16828, 15 December 1928, Page 3

“REFORM OVERDUE"

MATRICULATION EXAM. A TEACHER’S OPINION {Special to the Herald.) AUCKLAND, this day. That a reform of the present system ~f matriculation examination was long overdue was the opinion expressed by Miss E. M. Johnston, headmistress ot I,ho A nek land Girls’ Grammar Sellout, at tlm annual prize-giving ceremony. Tim sehuul syllabus' was still dominated, and wtts likely to continue to be dominated, by the demands of tlm matriculation examinatiun, said .Miss Johnston. As more and more candidates presented themselves for litis examination matters grew worse Mislead ol better from year to year. 'Jim P r ''- spuf position was that the 1.-Diversity undertook to mark in six weeks oyer 4000 papers in subjects such as English and arithmetic. Jl was. ol course, impossible for any one examiner to mark all the papers in any subject and equally impossible to maintain an objective .standard when the papers were marked by different examiners. The result was that as fair as pupils on the margin were concerned success or failure was more the result of chance, than ol any considered judgment on the part of the examiners.

"1 am not, in favor at the present stage of tlm full system of accrediting for this examination. Other reforms, I think, must come first, but 1 do feel that in the case of marginal candidates the school record might well be taken into account,'’ said the. principal. “H is surely a. mere truism to state that such a record covering a period ol three, four or live years is of somewhat more value than a three -hour test given under examination conditions. The University seems to lie obsessed by the fear that, the system of accrediting would lower the standard of the examination, but. in a groat many eases it passes pupils whom the schools would unhesitatingly fail. Many of the papers are set on obsolete lines and put a premium on the work ot the ‘crammer. They are marked very often by examiners who have had no experience of teaching in secondary schools. There is in practice no provision for the reconsideration of certain marginal eases of failure and- no provision whatever fur the. granting of aggregate passes, and these are only some of the indictments' which may be brought against the present system.”