PROFICIENCY EXAMS. DOMINATE SCHOOLS

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19241, 1 December 1930, Page 5

PROFICIENCY EXAMS. DOMINATE SCHOOLS

MASTERS DISSATISFIED WITH PRESENT SYSTEM.

Disappointment was expressed by members of the Canterbury Head Masters’ Association when discussing the Standard VI proficiency examination of 1930; and the opinion was expressed that the spirit of culture in the curriculum and of freedom to teachers, about which much was written in the new syllabus, were expressions of hopes which could never be realised as long as the proficiency examination was allowed to dominate the educational field in the primary schools of the Dominion. More marking of examination papers, not less, was stated to be a disappointing feature of this year’s examination. There was general agreement with the opinion expressed by one head master that Standard VI, or Form II as it is now officially known, had at this 3'ear’s examination called for far too much of the head master’s time, to the detriment of the other divisions in the school. The sudden dropping at the eleventh hour of the Dominion survey by order of the Minister had, it was stated, called upon the inspectors to do a lot of unexpected work with very little time in which to do it. This rushing of the work had resulted in papers which were unevenly balanced, in regard to difficulties; so that those who worked one paper had an unfair advantage over their fellows who struck the more difficult one. The drawing examination contained six sections of a widely different nature, all of whch had to be attempted. This, it was stated, entailed a big task for the pupils, one into which the element of fatigue largely entered. For the head master the drawing for a class of forty pupils meant the marking of three hundred papers. This, it was felt, : was an unfair addition to an already heavy task.