WIDER CURRICULUM.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20340, 25 June 1934, Page 5

WIDER CURRICULUM.

Certificate Examination Approved. GISBORNE RECTOR'S VIEW. (Special to the “ Star.”) GISBORNE, June 20. The opinion that the school certificate examination was a bold attempt to mitigate the evils of a system which tended to force all pupils through the same mould irrespective of the native aptitudes and ' abilities of a widely varying character was expressed by Mr. J. Hutton, tlie rector, in a report to the Gisborne High School Board. Mr. Hutton stated that he had made a- careful study of the average duration of secondary school life during the past eight years. He found that 13.5 per cent left during the first year, 30.1 at the end of the first year, and 27. G per cent at the end of the second year, so that 71.2 per cent did not spend longer than two years in secondary school. “These figures,’* lie eaid, “indicate clearly the necessity for taking every opportunity of widening the curriculum, which should not be conditioned according to the needs only of a fraction of tlie pupils. It cannot be denied that schools are bound to do the best possible for all sorts and conditions of pupils under the free place system in the interests of efficiency and citizenship. Obviously there is much waste in having 71 per cent of pupils who do not stay at school longer than two years and who attempt the same work as those who complete the long course and eventually do advanced work. They gain only a smattering of tlie various subjects, when their time could have been devoted to fuller acquaintance with subjects of a basic character and the formation of interests serviceable to their leisure hours in later life.’*